IT giants form protective patent alliance

Large IT companies in the US want to join forces to avoid patent litigation. Citing "informed sources", the Wall Street Journal has reported that companies like Verizon Communications, Google, Cisco Systems, Ericsson and Hewlett Packard intend to buy "intellectual property" before others can use it against them. The alliance wants to counteract both 'patent trolls' and aggressive companies like Qualcomm and Rambus.

The term 'patent troll' refers to companies who acquire and hold patents specifically to try to extract profits through litigation, while not manufacturing or distributing any devices or systems which actually involve the patents. As an example the report cites patent holding company NTP, which for years was in patent litigation with Blackberry manufacturer, Research in Motion. Last year, disputes of this kind caused companies like Google and Apple to criticise these mis-uses of the US patent system.

The Wall Street Journal says that attempts to protect companies against future patent litigation have been made before, adding that several IT firms support former Microsoft manager Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures. Supported by the IT companies, Myhrvold's company buys technologies and then licenses them in return. However, there are fears in the IT sector that despite assurances to the contrary, Intellectual Ventures could itself become a patent troll and use its assets to litigate.

See also:

• Software patent disputes costing US economy billions

(trk)