Forgent Settles Patent Case; Ends Up With Over $100 Million For No Innovation
from the and-who-wins?-the-lawyers dept
Remember Forgent Networks? This is the company that had acquired a bunch of assets, including some patents, and later, while looking at them decided that one of those patents might retroactively cover JPEG image compression technology -- despite the fact that they, and the original creators of the patent, had absolutely nothing to do with the actual technology. They went on a licensing spree that pissed off a bunch of companies who saw it as a perfect example of abusing the patent system. It wasn't helping anyone except for a company that had absolutely nothing to do with the technology in question at all. Even as people found prior art Forgent kept convincing companies to license the patent, as it was often cheaper to license than to fight it. Earlier this year, the Patent Office agreed to review the patent and indicated that they had some questions about how valid it really was. There's still a long process following that, and initial skepticism doesn't mean that the patent won't eventually be upheld, but it appears Forgent saw the writing on the wall and decided that it was a good time to cash out. They've now settled all the remaining claims they filed using that patent for $8 million -- which is significantly less than they had hoped to get. Still, in the end the company managed to get well over $100 million out of a variety of companies without doing the slightest bit of innovation.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Prior Art
Come to think of it I'm coming after everyone that farts. Regardless of your prior art, or fart.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Prior Art
If you go see the movie Jackass 2 you'll find out there is already prior art.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No way Smooth Jazz
[ link to this | view in chronology ]