I have briefly mentioned that patent trolls have filed more lawsuits starting from 2000. I would like to talk in more depth about the increased lawsuits after 2000. Patent trolls have filed 19% more patent infringing lawsuits in 2013 than in 2012. Wireless carrier AT&T used to be the top target of patent trolls in 2013, suing more than 54 times, which is more than once a week.
The list goes like this:
- AT & T
- Verizon
- Apple
- Samsung
- Amazon
- Dell
- Sony
- Huawei
- Blackberry
AT&T was sued 54 times, Google 43 times, Verizon 42 times, Apple 41 times, Samsung and Amazon 39 times, Dell and SOny 34 times, Huawei 32 times, and lastly, Blackberry 31 times. This makes every company listed above sued by at least once every 12 days.
RPX is a defensive patent aggregator, which is paid by many companies to buy potentially problematic patents beforehand on the open market so that NPE can not sue them with the potential patents.
The top 10 list for NPE targets by total active cases when taking into account of NPE cases filed in previous years and still unresolved as of December 31, 2013, the list changes totally.
- At&T
- Apple
- Samsung
- Sony
- Amazon
- Verizon
- HTC
- LG Electronics
- Dell
Google fought 72 active cases, Apple 68 cases, Samsung 63 cases, Sony 58 cases, Amazon 54 cases, Verizon 46 cases, HTC 42 cases, LG Electronic 42 cases, and Dell 41 cases.
Fortune magazine explains that "giant tech corporations routinely pilfer innovations dreamed up by independent inventors, and that NPEs simply give these powerless individuals the financial support and litigation muscle they need to vindicate their rights. NPEs therefore serve not only small inventors, by also society at large, by preserving the incentive systems."
Hi Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It was surprising for me to hear about how many cases that these companies are facing from patent trolls and how much litigation these large technology companies have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.