You might have been reading a bit about Blackbird Technologies lately. Not the Blackbird Raytheon bought in 2014 (cybersecurity) or the Blackbird Etsy bought in 2016 (AI algorithms). (It’s a popular name, apparently.) This one’s a troll. Tailoring a Patent Troll Blackbird was formed in 2014 by attorneys who worked for two major law firms. […]
This past Friday, the FTC received OMB approval to go ahead with the 6(b) study on patent assertion entities. It’s been a long time coming, but the FTC did a thorough job of gathering feedback from everyone with an interest in the study. The questionnaires are solid. Now that the last hurdle has been cleared, the FTC should move […]
As we’ve written a number of times (e.g., here, here, and here), nothing good has come out of the war between Apple and Samsung. Both companies have spent millions and neither has much to show for it. The big losers, of course, have been consumers, who could be enjoying better products: products that could have been built using […]
A coalition of tech companies (Google, Canon, SAP, Newegg, Dropbox and Asana) recently announced a new private initiative to disarm patent trolls: the License on Transfer Network (LOT). This is essentially an extension of Google’s Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge (OPN) that I wrote about in my very first Patent Progress post last year. In the OPN, […]
Big news in the Smartphone Wars: Google and Apple have settled their patent disputes. This is unequivocally a good thing. As we’ve written a number of times (see here, here, and here), the smartphone patent wars have been sucking away resources and doing nothing to improve products for consumers. With luck, the Samsung-Apple lawsuits will […]
This is a quick follow up on Monday’s post about the Customs and Border Protection Service and its role in enforcing patent infringement decisions from the International Trade Commission. Depending on what the ITC does in an upcoming case, the CBP might find itself with yet another patent headache from the Smartphone Patent Wars. You […]
Good morning! On Monday, Reuters reported that the International Trade Commission (ITC) is taking steps to rein in frivolous litigation from patent trolls, by requiring “companies to prove upfront that they have a significant presence in the United States.” This is welcome news, as the ITC can get abused by patent trolls. We will have […]
Welcome, new readers who are joining us after yesterday’s event and big announcement! Yesterday at an event co-sponsored by CCIA (which hosts this blog) and AAI (the American Antitrust Institute), FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez announced her intent to have the FTC do a 6(b) study on patent assertion entities, as the New York Times had […]
Another day and another volley fired against patent assertion entities (PAEs). Today, it’s the FTC joining the fray. At an event co-sponsored by CCIA, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez announced that she would be asking the Commission to institute a Section 6(b) investigation of the patent troll business model. Senator Leahy also sent Chairwoman Ramirez a […]