Vendors Fight Back Against at 'Patent Trolls'
<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/30/technology/patents.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008063012">CNN Money</a>, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/06/30/tech-giants-band-together-to-buy-and-sell-patents-but-not-for-profit/?mod=googlenews_wsj">The Wall Street Journal</a>
Eleven high-tech companies have joined forces to safeguard themselves from costly patent lawsuits.Allied Security Trust, a nonprofit group that includes Google, Apple, HP and Cisco, plans to buy intellectual property of interest to its member businesses before "patent trolls" can do so. Members pay $250,000 to join Allied and contribute about $5 million, which goes into an escrow account and is used toward patent purchases. Allied will sell the patents it acquires after members have granted themselves a nonexclusive license to the underlying technology.
The group won't face antitrust issues because it doesn't actually own the patents, and because it's nonprofit, said Allied CEO Brian Hinman, a former VP of intellectual property and licensing at IBM.CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal
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