It might be that a company culled little-used patents that were expensive to maintain. But the trolls acquire more than 80 percent of their patents from regular companies. It seems counterintuitive that successful companies would ever sell their patents to a troll, more formally known as patent-assertion entities, patent holding companies or nonpracticing entities. There’s even patent troll insurance, because standard liability policies don’t cover such lawsuits.
LOT is among several “defensive patent” networks and pledges.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation just released its annual “Hacking the patent system” report, which discusses a variety of ways to defend patents from trolls. Still, he said, “It’s growing, and it’s good to see that it’s gone outside traditional technology companies with car companies getting involved.” “But it doesn’t stop problems with patent quality and with operating companies attacking each other.” “It’s a targeted program that’s good for limiting the supply of patents to the very worst actors who use litigation to shake down people for settlements,” he said. “We’re all innovative companies we believe in IP.”ĭaniel Nazer, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who holds the delightfully titled Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents, had cautious praise for LOT. “We are all companies that have a healthy respect for intellectual property,” said Joe FitzGerald, vice president and general counsel of Pure Storage. In fact, the member companies can still defend their patents, even suing one another. Still, companies may have concerns that they risk losing control of their patents. “It should appeal to all kinds of companies it’s pretty much a no-brainer to join to provide peace of mind.” “This is a big-tent kind of program,” he said. He originated LOT in summer 2014 during his previous job as Google legal director as a way to address the problem at scale. “The approach leverages a network effect: The more companies that join, the more attractive it is to join,” said Eric Schulman, Uber’s senior director of intellectual property. He aims to see LOT add 50 companies and expand its portfolio to a million patents by year end - or about 40 percent of the 2.5 million active U.S. It will be expensive and, worse, cause a lot of interruption to the people at your company who are actually building something.”Īs the group grows, Seddon hopes for a snowball effect bringing in new members. “It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, at some point you will be sued by a patent troll. “This solves a very real problem at a low cost,” said Ramsey Homsany, general counsel of Dropbox, one of LOT’s founding companies.
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