Tech giants form alliance to fend off patent trolls
Some of the biggest names in tech have formed an alliance to try to shield themselves from the ravages of patent trolls.
Companies including Google, Asana, Canon, Dropbox, Newegg, Pure Storage and SAP are the founding members of the License on Transfer Network, or Lotnet, which is hoping to attract more members into the alliance. The initiative has apparently been planned for several months – the founding members all signed their agreements back in January.
The members have agreed a kind of ‘non-aggression pact’, which states that if any member of the alliance sells one or all of its patents, all the other members will gain a royalty-free license to use that patent. The idea is that this will shield members if any of those patents end up in the hands of unscrupulous trolls.
Members will still be able to enforce their rights to patents they own, but once a patent is sold the royalty-free license for all other members immediately becomes effective, says the announcement. This will prevent whoever buys the patents from using them against Lotnet members.
However, this safety net isn’t entirely troll-proof, as there as “carve-outs for certain M&A transactions and change of control”, which means there could be trouble if a company such as Apple acquired one of the members.
What with Canon, Google and SAP all being founding members, the alliance counts more than 300,000 patents which are covered, together with total revenues of some $117 billion. To become a member of Lotnet, companies must pay between $1,500 and $20,000 annually, depending on their revenue.
Image credit: OpenClips via Pixabay.com
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
