Cloudflare offers $100,000 for prior art to nuke networking patents a troll has accused it of ripping off
- Reference: 1619476087
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/26/cloudflare_patent_troll/
- Source link:
Sable Networks, which took over the intellectual property of failed "flow-based router" startup Caspian Networks in the mid-2000s, sued Cloudflare and five other companies in March, claiming they ripped off [1]four patents belonging to Caspian that involved directing data over a computer network. This lawsuit followed eight other infringement claims filed by Sable against Cisco, Juniper Networks, and others, all of which were apparently settled out of court.
[2]
The four are US [3]6,954,431 , [4]6,977,932 , [5]7,012,919 , and [6]8,243,593 .
"It's not unusual for people to get a first round of settlements and use that to fill their coffers," Doug Kramer, general counsel at Cloudflare, told The Register on Monday. The patents involved are barely related to Cloudflare's business, he said, and now the internet giant is fighting back to invalidate the the patents and have the case thrown out.
[7]
As such, Cloudflare is resuscitating Project Jengo, its campaign against against Blackbird Technologies [8]in 2017 – and is offering bounties for prior art not only on the patents Sable is suing over but the rest of its portfolio as well.
Hell hath GNOME fury: Linux desktop org swings ax at patent troll's infringement claim [9]READ MORE
"We're going after the other six patents Sable holds because we want to push back," Kramer said. "It's helpful to go beyond the initial case if you're going to show the recklessness of these firms. There has to be a corresponding risk for them."
Not that it seems there's much of a company to dissuade. Sable's phone number and website are no longer in service, and Kramer said the organization has shown no detectable activity since 2011 – and noted "we were being generous with that estimation."
The last time Cloudflare offered a bounty for prior art, it ultimately got Blackbird's infringement allegations thrown out of court and the patents in question invalidated. Back then it put up $50,000 to pay for prior art, and a donor matched it. Now the internet backbone biz is putting up the full six-figures, and will make all authenticated prior art finds public to use against similar wobbly patent-infringement complaints.
It isn't just documents that are important in demonstrating prior art, Kramer said: people are useful, too. Engineers who worked on Caspian's patented technology – the four patents Cloudflare is being sued over were filed between 2000 and 2004 – could tell a court the designs were based on prior work.
[10]
Cloudflare isn't alone in taking direct action against patent trolls' war chests. Last year Intel, Apple, Cisco, and Google [11]sued the US Patent and Trademark Office because it was making it harder for tech companies to appeal overly broad patents. Earlier, IBM, the Linux Foundation and Microsoft [12]set up a fighting fund to protect open-source projects from baseless infringement claims. ®
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[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/project-jengo-redux-cloudflares-prior-art-search-bounty-returns/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YIeMYlwA-KlsAP-6Vy@elgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://patents.google.com/patent/US6954431B2/
[4] https://patents.google.com/patent/US6977932B1/
[5] https://patents.google.com/patent/US7012919B1
[6] https://patents.google.com/patent/US8243593B2/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YIeMYlwA-KlsAP-6Vy@elgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/25/cloudflare_doubles_down_trollhunting_crusade/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/22/gnome_linux_lausuit/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YIeMYlwA-KlsAP-6Vy@elgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/02/intel_us_patents/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/20/microsoft_linux_patent_trolls/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Patent law itself isn't nearly as bad as copyright law in the US. That's still a pretty low bar though (pun not intended)
The problem is the patent office has gotten a "fuck it, approve it all and let the courts settle it" attitude and needs to be beaten soundly with a very large stick.
the patent office has gotten a "fuck it, approve it all and let the courts settle it" attitude and needs to be beaten soundly with a very large stick.
The USPTO needs staff and funding to do its job properly. Anger is no substitute for money.
"The USPTO needs staff and funding to do its job properly."
That's the trouble, it IS doing its job ... at least according to what passes for it's existing charter.
"Anger is no substitute for money."
Anger? That's not anger, mate. That's pure, unadulterated pent-up frustration.
This was changed around 1995
Their remit used to be "Issue valid patents". Then it was switched to "Help our customers gain patents". That was part of VP Al Gore's work. Some of us called out where it was headed at the time.
Re: This was changed around 1995
Some of us? Try most of us.
"needs to be beaten soundly with a very large stick."
The current patent office is so long in the tooth it needs to be taken out behind the barn and put out of it's misery before it does any more damage to the things around it in it's senility.
The whole thing needs to be figuratively burned down and rebuilt. It has gone far beyond a joke.
So when is the Article of "Why is patent law in USA insane?" coming out?