Terry Drayton’s latest legal trouble

The beleaguered owner of Count Me In, which was forced into bankruptcy after running up a $5 million in IOUs to youth sports organizations that used it for online registration services, is now extra beleaguered. The Seattle tech news site TechFlash reports that a company called The Active Network has sued Count Me in for patient infringement. (The lawsuit itself is here.)

(By the way, I should apologize for getting to this a few days’ late. Given that Terry Drayton and Count Me In are very popular search terms for this site, you’d figure I’d be all over this at least in the name of giving the [very angry] people what they want.)

If cruel irony is what you readers want, here it is.

San Diego-based Active claims an affiliate of Count Me In has infringed on its online registration-related patent, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM OF ELECTRONICALLY RECEIVING AND PROCESSING MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
OF AN ORGANIZATION.” (Apropos of nothing, it was granted Sept. 11, 2001.) Active is saying that Arena Group, Count Me In’s parent, used this patent as part of its own online registration program — and used the Active registered trademark to boot.

Active says Seattle-based Count Me In had prior knowledge of its patent before using it, through the lawsuit doesn’t spell out how anyone at Count Me In knew about it. Drayton and Count Me In have not yet responded to the lawsuit.

The Active Network filed this case in federal court in Seattle. A similar lawsuit Active brought in federal court in southern California, was dismissed in February, only a few weeks after filing. That doesn’t speak well for Active’s chances of winning. Even if it won, what would it get out of a bankrupt company that can’t pay the bills it already has?

But that might be beside the point. Active is a Count Me In competitor and has its own competitive reasons for wanting to crush a company already forced in bankruptcy by the some of youth sports organization to which it owed money. Actually, Active has been, um, active on various web sites doing a little grave dancing on Count Me In and trying to sell its own product, which is used by Little League Baseball. (Look at the comment sections here and the last paragraph of this story. Certainly, even a mention on this little ol’ blog will make Active executives smile.