Terry Drayton regained control of Count Me In on Wednesday, a strange twist given that the embattled founder of the Bellevue Internet company apologized profusely earlier this year for bungling payments to more than 200 non-profit and youth sports organizations that utilized the company’s online registration technology.

The missed payments, totaling $5 million, led to an involuntary bankruptcy filing and a court-led seizure of the business five months ago.

In Wednesday’s ruling, federal bankruptcy judge Samuel Steiner approved the sale of the Count Me In assets for $200,000 to Rainier Software, an entity led by Drayton.

The asset sale came over the objections of Count Me In creditors, including a strongly worded filing by rival bidder, The Active Network.

In court documents Tuesday, The Active Network — which also operates an online registration system for sports leagues — called the auction process "flawed" and questioned the integrity of the bankruptcy trustee.

"…Active objects to the sale both on the grounds that the sale was unfair and that the trustee improperly accepted a lower price than he would have received had the sale been conducted properly," the company wrote in the filing.

In a declaration, the registrar for the Murfreesboro Soccer Club — one of the more than 200 sports clubs owed money — said she was "deeply troubled" that the Active Network was being precluded from making what she believed was a higher bid for the assets.

But a number of other sports clubs offered their support for Drayton’s new company including customers who preferred the online registration technology over that of the Active Network. Greg Swain, president of the San Jose American Little League, wrote in a May 15 letter to the court that he had experience with both systems and that Count Me In’s technology was superior.

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and I Can Has Ichiro  

You know I Can Has Cheezburger’s gone mainstream when it goes to the ballpark. And that’s what is happening July 9 as The Seattle Mariners and America’s favorite cat caption Web site host "Cheezburger Night."

At the TechFlash Live event last month, I Can Has Cheezburger founder Ben Huh was laughing about the possibility of matching his company’s loyal followers with the Seattle Mariners. Well, as odd as it sounds, it is actually happening.

From the company’s description of activities:

It’s a Cheezburger Night wif teh Seattle Mariners! Join Cheezburger and Tofuburger and all of ur Cheez Frendz at Safeco Field on Thursday, July 9 for a speshul Cheezburger event! Der will b sum fun pre-game festivitiez and u can meet lotsa Cheez Frendsz cuz we awl will b sittin in our speshul Cheezburger section! Buy ur tickets heer and join in teh fun! Hope 2 c u awl der!

The Mariners actually could have a lot of fun with the Cheezburger crew, incorporating the crazy captions into the player descriptions on the jumbotron scoreboard. Or, could you imagine Dave Niehaus calling the game in LOL speak? 

We may have to sign up, though a Fail Blog night could be even more fun.

see more Fail Blog

[Hat tip to the P-I]

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and Microsoft on the hook for $200M in patent infringement case  

A Texas jury has awarded Toronto software company i4i $200 million after it found that Microsoft infringed on a patent related to a document formatting system. The technology in question was used in Microsoft products such as Word 2003 and Word 2007.  

i4i’s patent — U.S. Patent No. 5,787,499 – was issued in 1998. Reuters reports that Microsoft plans to appeal the verdict, which included awards for lost profits and royalties.

i4i president Karen Heater tells the AP that the company feels "vindicated." The 8-day trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Just last month, Microsoft was ordered to pay $388 million for infringing a software patent from Uniloc.

Now, according to Bloomberg News, Microsoft has the dubious honor of losing the two biggest patent infringement verdicts so far this year. And Bloomberg notes that $200 million equates to about four days of profit at the software giant.

UPDATE: Here’s Microsoft’s statement from spokesman David Bowermaster.

"We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict. We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."

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Tesla comes to Seattle  

Are you a Seattle car fanatic with $109,000 to spare? If so, get ready for Tesla Motors.  The Silicon Valley maker of battery-powered cars – which was in the news this week after German car maker Daimler took a 10 percent stake in it — plans to open a showroom and service center in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood in September, according to The Seattle Times.

The sleek Roadster appeals to the high-tech, environmentally concsious consumer, with the Times noting that several current and former Microsoft employees (including South Lake Union developer Paul Allen) are among the buyers of the sports car.

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