Judge Patterson Calls for Settlement

Towards the end of today's cross examination, Judge Robert Patterson stopped the testimony to question the trial as a whole. From the Wall Street Journal:

Judge Patterson removed his glasses and addressed the court. “I’m concerned that this case is more lawyer-driven than it is client-driven,” he lamented. “The fair use people are on one side, and a large company is on the other side. . . . The parties ought to see if there’s not a way to work this out, because there are strong issues in this case and it could come out one way or the other. The fair use doctrine is not clear.”

The Fair Use Doctrine is a United States Law, defined accurately by Wikipedia as allowing “limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.”

You can read more of what happened at today's trial concerning Lexicon author Steve Van Der Ark here. The trial has ended for the day and will continue into tomorrow and Thursday.