Microsoft First Member of Litigation Avoidance Program
Patent research provider Article One Partners, has announced a new Litigation Avoidance program, which utilizes crowdsourcing to challenge and invalidate specious software patents sometimes used in expensive lawsuits brought by so-called patent trolls.
Microsoft has been announced as the charter member of the paid service, which identifies pre-litigation patents and distributes requests to Article One’s global online community of 1 million scientists and technologists to research the validity of the patents. Article One uses that collected research, where appropriate, to file reexamination requests with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). With researchers from 176 countries and projects translated into 8 languages, Article One’s community identifies key foreign language evidence and non-patent literature. Researchers are incentivized with cash prizes for the highest quality research.
According to Article One Partners, patent quality is a widely recognized problem facing companies who spend an estimated $5 billion per year defending against non-practicing entity NPE lawsuits in the U.S. and billions more on settlements and judgments. For example, in one of the most highly visible NPE patent infringement claims, NTP Incorporated received a $612 million settlement from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) in 2006. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) later identified prior art that invalidated 97 percent of NTP’s claims in the case. Further, research collected from federal and circuit courts has shown that 46 percent of patents litigated to judgment are invalid.
Microsoft said the Litigation Avoidance service will be another tool to investigate patent quality before going to court. The goal is “to reduce risk and reduce potential litigation cost,” said Bart Eppenauer, chief patent counsel at Microsoft. “NPEs continue to actively target large technology companies, and often with portfolios of questionable quality.”
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