Google, Cisco, and others band together against patent trolls

Tag : open generator

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson, Verizon, and othersare joining together to buy up patents to prevent the patents beingused against them by patent trolls. The group, called the AlliedSecurity Trust, is a bit like the open-source friendly Open Invention Network , but appears to have more cash at its disposal. The new Allied Security Trust aims to buy patents that others mightuse to bring infringement claims against its members. Companieswill pay roughly $250,000 to join the group and will each put about$5 million into escrow with the organization, to go toward futurepatent purchases, the people familiar with the initiativesaid....[C]ompanies in the new group will sell the patents theyacquire after they have granted themselves a nonexclusive licenseto the underlying technology.
Allied Security Trust isn't intended to be a revenue generator forthe companies involved, but rather a protective shield againstpatent trolls big (Intellectual Ventures, which was recently torched in The New Yorker ) and small (Acacia).
Will it succeed? Who knows? But any efforts intended to bring somesanity to the patent-litigation racket are very welcome.