RE: Laymans terms26 Jan 2021 09:42
In a previous career I was an exec at a software company, with a moat of software and technology patents from current and past products.
We had a decent licensing business where we would effectively rent out our patent portfolio to companies wanting to plug holes and had very well known licensees.
I have been to court twice in Texas, once when a trolling company came directly at us. And another when one of our customers was being pursued.
In each case the company was a small outfit made up entirely of lawyers. They would buy patents from struggling or bust companies and use them to chase companies for infringing. Their ask was always a huge stack of cash and or a licensing deal for a slice of ongoing revenue.
judges wanted to see evidence of real shipping products and revenue. And took a very dim view of the troll with no products, no customers , no r&d investments. We didn’t have a bullet proof case as our attempt to invalidate their patents had failed due to a few months gap of information in public domain. We were able to build a defence around a customer press release and reasonable project plans showing that our technology existed years before their patent and had previous customers that are not public.
The process took a year (at least) but only one week in and out of court.
On the last day, the trolls approached our lawyers to ask for a smaller wedge of cash and no ongoing to drop the suit, effectively recover their investment and chase someone else. My company agreed which I still morally do not approve of he trolls came back a few years later wanting to buy patents, refused to agree to not pursue us or our customers and wanted to pay based on a % of their “winnings”.
Spending time with patent lawyers and their stories you realise how messy these situations are. Compounded further by these cases always ending up in hick us jurisdictions with a judge that may back “a good ol boy” rather than a foreign company.
I am confident eqtec is in a good spot, I am invested, but IP cases in the US are not black and white.
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