Eagle Broadband v. Mould [1]

In October 2005, Eagle Broadband, Inc. brought a John Doe lawsuit for defamation, trade libel, and unfair competition under California law after anonymous users posted critical statements about it on a Yahoo! Finance message board. Shortly thereafter, the court granted [2] Eagle leave to take discovery from Yahoo! regarding the identity of the anonymous posters. Eagle determined the identity of two of the posters -- Thomas Mould (Doe 5) and Richard Williams (Doe 4).

Williams and Mould moved to strike the complaint pursuant to California's anti-SLAPP statute (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 425.16 [3]). The court granted the motion with respect to Mould and awarded him approximately $65,000 in attorney's fees. The court denied the motion with respect to Williams. On appeal, a California appellate court upheld [4] the trial's court's rulings regarding Mould, but reversed the denial of Williams's motion and remanded the case with instructions to award attorney's fees to Williams upon proper motion.

Eagle voluntarily dismissed [5] the action with regard to Doe 2 in October 2006. The case appears to be still pending against the remaining anonymous defendants.