The German Supreme Court requested my presence to testify
as an expert witness on Feb.
21, 2012 in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The evidence I provided was key to winning a telecom patent lawsuit over who
first started the prepaid phone card technology in March of 1992.
We proved the phonecard was invented by the company I worked with 20 years ago,
AmeriVox, and we broke the
patent claim of huge telecom giant IDT.
This precedent setting case now allows anyone to sell phonecards in Germany or
where ever they want.
Attorney Felix Tersteegen to my right and the client being sued by IDT: Dr. Jurgen Schulz to my left. The German Supreme Court is behind us.
Attorney and friend Malte Koellner with Dr. Jurgen: Owner of MOX Telecom - MOX Prepaid MasterCard and MOX DEALS getting ready to start the day that was solely devoted to our case.
This word means: German Supreme Court
Malte Koellner in full dress for the case. Malte arranged everything for me on
my 5 days trip and was a most gracious and charming host.
The other 4 lawyers for our side are behind him. 5 lawyers for our side and
there were 5 on the opposing side.
Our attorney team and the client
Below are a couple news articles about the victory we achieved at the Supreme Court:
Katherine dropped me off at the Villa Kennedy after picking me up at the airport for my first night in Germany
The interior of the Villa Kennedy was mind blowing
Carnival, also called FASCHING, was in
full swing the whole trip.
Lots of people dressed like pirates.
Cowboys were big
over there too, and lots of painted faces.
The couple pics below were from Karlsruhe, where the Supreme Court was located
My personal tour guide!
Attorney Katherine Kruger picked me up on my arrival at the Frankfurt airport and was my personal guide for the first two days, driving me 120 miles south to Karlsruhe and showing me the town
After the Supreme Court victory in Karlesruhe on Tuesday I spent the next day at Heidelberg, the town and the castle, the biggest and oldest castle in Germany.
Napoleon blew up this tower in the castle that has walls 27 feet thick.
This wine barrel was tiny compared to another one at the castle that was the biggest in the world, seen in images below.
This wine barrel at the castle holds 58,000 gallons of wine
"Everybody has heard of the great Heidelberg Tun, and most
people have seen it, no doubt. It is a wine-cask as big as a cottage, and some
traditions say it holds
eighteen hundred thousand bottles, and other traditions say it holds eighteen
hundred million barrels. I think it likely that one of these statements is a
mistake,
and the other is a lie. However, the mere matter of capacity is a thing of no
sort of consequence, since the cask is empty, and indeed has always been empty,
history says.
An empty cask the size of a cathedral could excite but little emotion in me. I
do not see any wisdom in building a monster cask to hoard up emptiness in, when
you can get a better quality,
outside, any day, free of expense."
- A Tramp Abroad - Mark Twain
The world's largest wine cask, the Heidelberg Tun was built in 1751 from the
trunks of 130 oak trees and has a capacity of 58,124 gallons.
It is 28 feet deep by 23 feet high. The balustraded platform on top was built as
a dance floor.
I left castle and wandered up the hill to an old hunting lodge from the year 1490, that was now a fancy restaurant
Had some beers with this guy who invited me to sit down with him while he had
lunch at the old hunting lodge that's been serving beers for over 520 years
This structure protects the town from invaders coming in over the bridge
A street in Heidelberg
More Heidelberg
This one wide street must have had over a thousand shops on it and gone on for a few miles. Every major luxury brand in the world must have had a shop on this street.
Series of pics below from a Heidelberg square that was a great place to hang out and down some more beers
Here's a toast to Germany!
Thanks to Malte Koellner and Dr. Jurgen Schulz and their entire team for
treating me like a king!
