I hope that you all have enjoyed your spring breaks! For this post, I am going to discuss an article about how Chris Hulls, the chief executive of the family networking and communication service, Life360, beat a patent troll:
Hulls discusses how most people view patent trolls as a problem, but they rarely fight back because it is cheaper to settle and pay them licensing fees than it is to go to court. Last May, his company Life360, a family networking app, was attacked by a troll the same week they raised $50 million in financing. In this case, they were being sued by Advanced Ground Information Systems Inc. for patent infringement.
Hulls chose not to settle and the jury delivered a verdict of non-infringement. He claims that he used three non-traditional methods to win his case:
Go Nuclear
- Patent trolls expect that you will listen to your lawyers, stay quiet, and pay them to go away
- Hulls repeatedly publicized the case and the individuals involved in order to frame them as patent trolls in the eyes of the media
- Patent trolls hate to be publicly scrutinized for their actions
Share Information and Resources
- Hulls open-sourced all of the prior art collected with the tech community and even announced free legal support for other startups with less than $25 million in funding facing AGIS
- This drew attention to the case and the meritless claims being brought against Life360
- This also sent a strong signal that if you sue Life360, it would make it harder to sue others as well
Go With Your Gut and Commit To It
- Many legal advisors may prefer to settle in order to avoid the large financial burden and distraction of going to court
- This is a short-term view, as you are less likely to become a future patent troll target if you have a track record of combatting patent trolls
Life360 received two other demand letters since the AGIS suit was filed, and when they saw the extreme defense they mounted against AGIS, they went away.
Hi Mo,
ReplyDeleteI read the same article by Mr. Hulls on TechCrunch and I really liked how you managed to summarize the points brought forward by Mr. Hulls in his article. I'm just curious as to hear your opinion on how you think these non traditional methods would fare in the long-run? The way Mr. Hulls put it seemed really idealistic, but can be very hard for other companies to implement and seem a bit too ambitious. I guess we'll have to see what other steps companies will take against these trolls. Nonetheless great post!
Mo, you did a fantastic job here -- well done. You briefly, yet concisely summarized the main points of this article. Like Rushil said, proivding more of your own view could help aid the learning process for both yourself and the class!
ReplyDeleteHey Mo,
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I really liked how you simply yet thoroughly pinpoint on the main points of this post. I also liked your addition of some images. Great job!
Hey Mo, you did an awesome job on this post. I really like how you very briefly and clearly summarized what Life360 did to beat out the patent trolls on lawsuits, and it is very easy to follow the 3 step procedure on how to go about winning the lawsuit. This is great!
ReplyDeleteHi Mo,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on this post! I like how you talked about a specific example - Life360 - and how they worked to beat out the patent trolls. This was an interesting and easy read.
Hey Mo! Really enjoyed your video. All of your videos are quite entertaining! You give a very detailed explanation of the concept but one thing I would say is try to be a bit more uplifted!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. I like how you separated each subject - made everything easier to follow. Good points too. I also looked into Chris Hull and I like his approach.keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHola Mo! Thank you for your post, it shows how a startup can definitely give a hit to the table and beat the trolls. Trolls should stop taking advantage of the system and startups need to also grow some courage! I also liked the friendly titles that you gave to each section of your blog. Keep it up :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Mo! Good info about how a startup actually succeeded in fighting off a troll. Nice to know that despite size one can fight back!
ReplyDelete