Tech Companies Launch New Coalition To Keep Operating Company Patents From Ending Up Abused By Trolls

from the good-for-them dept

Tech companies, even those that dislike the patent system (which is many of them), still feel pressured into getting lots of patents, often for defensive purposes, to avoid lawsuits. However, as we've discussed in the past, even patents that are initially obtained for defensive purposes are a nuclear weapon problem in waiting. Companies fail all the time, and their patents suddenly get sold off to the highest bidder -- and quite frequently these days, those are trolls. Some companies have tried to come up with unique and innovative ways to stop this potential trolling problem. For example, a few years ago, Twitter came up with the Innovator's Patent Agreement (IPA) which basically lets the engineers named on a patent issue a free license to whomever they want for the life of the patent. This is sort of an anti-troll talisman, because that engineer can simply go and give a free license to anyone a troll threatens.

While other companies haven't jumped on the IPA bandwagon, it appears a bunch of tech companies are trying something different. Google, Newegg, Dropbox, SAP, Asana and Canon have teamed up to launch the "License on Transfer Network," which is a royalty-free patent cross-licensing program, for any patent that is transferred outside of the group. The basic deal is pretty straightforward: if any company in the group transfers a patent outside the group, for any reason, everyone else in the group automatically gets a royalty-free license to that patent. Obviously, this kind of program really only works if lots of companies join, but they've made it incredibly easy to join. And, as Asana notes in its blog post about the program, there are tremendous network effects as more companies join:
The LOT Network is a powerful new idea that we hope will grow rapidly. Because of the inherent network effects, every additional company that joins the coalition will be a new nail in the patent troll coffin, diminishing the size of their potential market. As this happens, everyone will be able to direct more of their energy back to creating value.
Asana and Dropbox, which also put out a blog post about this both note that this only solves one aspect of the patent trolling problem, but it's still nice to see companies coming up with innovative solutions to try to pre-empt certain types of patent trolling problems.
Hide this

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

Filed Under: licensing, operating companies, patent trolls, patents
Companies: asana, canon, dropbox, google, newegg, sap


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 9:09pm

    Patents spur innovation in mysterious ways.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    PaulT (profile), 10 Jul 2014 @ 12:16am

    "they've made it incredibly easy to join"

    That would be my concern with this kind of scheme. Sure, it sounds great, but if you're making it any way difficult or expensive for smaller players to join, all you've done is switched one imbalanced, unfair cartel system and replaced it with another. Hopefully it succeeds in its aims.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Ninja (profile), 10 Jul 2014 @ 5:08am

      Re:

      I'd hope the patent system is reformed so companies didn't have to solve problems the Government created.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2014 @ 2:39am

    Did they get a patent on this innovative solution?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2014 @ 5:22am

    Great, Now if they can all get together to make our data more secure , or give us a cut of the money they collect from selling it .

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pixelation, 10 Jul 2014 @ 8:16am

    Ruined...

    You've ruined my favorite acronym. IPA

    Guess I'll go cry into my beer...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    gab4moi (profile), 10 Jul 2014 @ 8:26am

    Sooooo...

    Any chance of Apple and Samsung joining up and making several thousand lawyers homeless?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris Brand, 10 Jul 2014 @ 12:10pm

    Easy to join

    What prevents the Troll companies from joining ?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 10 Jul 2014 @ 12:44pm

      Re: Easy to join

      Not a thing, but if they do so, it would only further help reduce the amount of trolling possible. I think we should encourage trolls to join!

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.