Some of the biggest news on the litigation side of Patent Law recently has been IBM's suit of Airbnb for patent infringement. IBM has become known for its litigation in recent years. In fact, a few years ago, some commentators were labelling the once-mighty tech giant a mere "patent troll" for its more recent litigation(https://www.markmanadvisors.com/blog/2018/8/2/is-ibm-a-patent-troll). However, once IBM joined LOT, it was thought that IBM would be far more hesitant to sue for patent infringement.
LOT stands for License on Transfer, and it's basically an organization founded upon companies promising not to sell their patents to a "patent assertion entity" WITHOUT immediately licensing the said patents to every member in LOT. So if IBM has patent X, and IBM decides to sell patent X to a patent troll, every member of LOT immediately gains a license to patent X. Airbnb joined LOT on January 22, 2020, literally two weeks after IBM joined. However, this lawsuit against Airbnb is not precluded by LOT membership because it is over tech that IBM claims it developed on its own and still owns the rights to. LOT would not protect Airbnb against such a lawsuit. This lawsuit suggests that LOT is changing patent litigation, but not necessarily curtailing it in the long term. IBM is asking for an injunction on Airbnb. In the post eBay v. Merc-Exchange world, this is a very, very tall order. For starters, there is no presumption of an injunction as the appropriate remedy to infringement. Public good is also considered. Stay tuned for more.
1 Comment
Ted
3/18/2020 07:19:41 am
This case highlights just one of the underlying problems with LOT and similar organizations. A pact of general non-aggression raises far different antitrust concerns than a mechanism for a discrete technology space, like a patent pool.
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