PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
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Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#2Its always nice when the private sector figures out a way to solve a problem that should be solved by government, but government is incapable or unwilling to do so.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#3So basically you give up an unstated x% ahead of time for access to Google+Intertrust's portfolio. A few thoughts.
First, this only provides access to the patent portfolio. It doesn't pay the (considerable) litigation bills.
Second, this portfolio is already available. If Alice sues Bob, Bob can negotiate just in time with Intertrust or IBM or ... for access to a defensive/offensive portfolio. This acquisition of patents during litigation is common practice.
Third, just as Intertrust is going to do their due diligence on you, you are taking a risk that their portfolio is a good match for your risk. You need to do your due diligence on them and on their portfolio.
I might go for this, but it would be at a pretty low percentage, like less than a percent.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#4A lot of startups get sued by Non Practicing Entities (trolls) that have no operating business to speak of. That provides the slimmest counterattack surface - so not sure how useful it is to have a portfolio to hit back.
I think a better defense mechanism would be a legal defense fund that would force the trolls to make their case at trial, to go through discovery, to bring expert witnesses.
Because the law firms that represent them work on contingency, this would effectively cut into the potential licensing fees, and make trolling less profitable (and less likely).
Also, a lot of trolls extract patent licensing fees out of startups for patents that should have never been granted, and that deserve to be invalidated (e.g with prior art), but the process of getting a patent thrown out is expensive, so having a fund would greatly help.
The other strategy that could work is to get all the startups that get sued by a troll for a specific infringement and make a sort of "reverse class action" - making it possible for the startups to re-use the same lines of argument, evidence, etc in their cases.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#5Google is taking a leaf out of the Mafia playbook here. Classy. Nice start-up you have there. Would be a shame if one of these pesky trolls sued you. But if you join our organization as a partner you will be protected.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#6so..
patent laws are so broken that patent trolls are everywhere suing startups to get $ from them.
google now has a business that can directly benefit from such increasing number of patent trolls.
sounds not very inspiring to me.
who is always on the losing side? average small companies. who is screwing the economy & innovation and show no sign of change? governments who refuse to actually reform such a 100+ years old broken system.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#7Its always nice when the private sector figures out a way to solve a problem that should be solved by government, but government is incapable or unwilling to do so.
It's a government-created problem, and ultimately must be solved by them also. It's ridiculous that companies have to resort to this.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#8Google is taking a leaf out of the Mafia playbook here. Classy. Nice start-up you have there. Would be a shame if one of these pesky trolls sued you. But if you join our organization as a partner you will be protected.
I think there is a distinction here - the Mafia protects people from itself - but Google doesn't itself sue startups.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#9Google is taking a leaf out of the Mafia playbook here. Classy. Nice start-up you have there. Would be a shame if one of these pesky trolls sued you. But if you join our organization as a partner you will be protected.
I think there is a distinction here - the Mafia protects people from itself - but Google doesn't itself sue startups.
But the upside is similar: If nobody sues Google still has the equity and Google needs the trolls to stay around to make sure people will buy into this program.
Re: PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity
#10A lot of startups get sued by Non Practicing Entities (trolls) that have no operating business to speak of. That provides the slimmest counterattack surface - so not sure how useful it is to have a portfolio to hit back. I think a better defense mechanism would be a legal defense fund that would force the trolls to make their case at trial, to go through discovery, to bring expert witnesses. Because the law firms tha…
Let's say I pay into this fund, then I get sued for patent infringement. How does the fund decide whether this lawsuit is trolling or legitimate? Or would the fund pay for all patent lawsuits?