• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 4, 2012

Righthaven has been nothing if not aggressive in its litigation campaign against bloggers who reposted newspapers' content. The company, which notoriously sued first and asked questions later, brought a total of around 275 cases against bloggers and small publishers before its campaign came to a halt this summer. The defendants included a 20-year-old autistic blogger, a political site that excerpted five sentences of a 50-sentence news article, and an Ars Technica writer who posted an article that was accompanied by an allegedly infringing piece of art. (That latter case -- which was widely regarded as bogus from the get-go -- was withdrawn several days after it was filed.) 

The company extracted settlements from a good number of bloggers, but the lawsuit initiative fell apart last summer after judges began examining the contracts between Righthaven and its newspaper clients. Several judges in Nevada, as well as one in Colorado, determined that Righthaven lacked standing to sue because it didn't obtain all of the rights to the newspapers' articles, including the right to license them.

Some judges also ordered Righthaven to reimburse defense attorneys for their work on the lawsuits. To date, Righthaven has been ordered to pay more than $200,000 in attorneys' fees.

Righthaven failed to do so in at least one case -- a failed lawsuit against blogger Wayne Hoehn, who reposted a Las Vegas Review-Journal article. Hoehn's lawyer then obtained court orders awarding him more than $60,000 in attorneys' fees. When Righthaven didn't pay, U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pro ordered the company's assets auctioned off and appointed Lara Pearson as receiver.

Pearson obtained Righthaven's domain name and is currently auctioning it, but has been unable to obtain the copyrights owned by the company.

Given Righthaven's history of aggressive litigation, it shouldn't be a surprise that the copyright enforcer continues to push the envelope. The company's latest maneuver: Its lawyer told Pearson that Righthaven and its CEO, Steve Gibson, couldn't sign over Righthaven's portfolio of copyrights because courts have ruled that Righthaven doesn't own those copyrights.

“Given these circumstances, it would be a material misrepresentation for Mr. Gibson or Righthaven to execute a document that purports to ‘assign any and all copyrights owned,'" Righthaven counsel Shawn Mangano said in a letter to Pearson that she forwarded to the court.

Pearson included the correspondence in a motion, filed this week, complaining that Righthaven  refused to comply with the receivership order. In her motion, Pearson asks Pro for guidance about “whether Righthaven is required to transfer any and all rights it may possess (even if none).”

Even as Righthaven fights its imminent dismantling, the company is being hit with new headaches. Last week, the process serving company Legal Wings sued Righthaven for more than $5,000 in allegedly unpaid bills.