Cloudflare Destroys Another Patent Troll, Gets Its Patents Released To The Public
from the this-is-just-super-enjoyable-all-around dept
Three years ago, we updated Vizzini’s list of “classic blunders” from The Princess Bride to include “never try to patent troll Cloudflare.” That was when the company announced that patent troll Sable Networks had made that mistake and now needed to be taught a lesson. That lesson is now complete, and Cloudflare has successfully destroyed a patent troll (and embarrassed it along the way) so much that the troll has agreed to declare its entire patent portfolio open and free for the public to use.
First, some history: over a decade ago, the e-commerce site Newegg was getting sick of patent trolls and decided that it needed to take a “never settle” approach to fighting them. The thing with patent trolling is that it’s asymmetric warfare. Trolls get low quality patents and then shake down companies, knowing that it’s cheaper to just pay some smaller amount to settle than to take the matter to court and win. But, as Newegg’s leadership surmised at the time, settling only leads to more patent trolls and more shake down payments. Making it clear you’ll never ever settle (and being very public about that) should eventually lead patent trolls to look elsewhere.
Since then, a few other companies have embraced this strategy, but none has done so with quite the same gusto, zeal, and commitment to absolutely crushing the souls of patent trolls as Cloudflare.
In 2017, Cloudflare announced its plan to completely destroy a patent trolling firm, Blackbird. It launched something it called Project Jengo, which offered up rewards to anyone helping them to completely obliterate Blackbird’s patents. The campaign was a huge success. Cloudflare won in court (and on appeal) and it appeared it greatly limited Blackbird’s ability to keep trolling.
Sable Networks didn’t bother to educate itself on this before trying its trolling efforts on Cloudflare. Cloudflare opened up the same playbook on Sable (owners of a bunch of old terrible Caspian Networks patents that it bought for a song). Cloudflare fought back and won in court earlier this year.
And it wasn’t just a “you didn’t infringe” kind of win. They actually got a jury to invalidate the patent at issue (the lawsuit had started with many claims over multiple patents, but by the time it went to trial, it had been narrowed down to one claim on one patent, and Sable couldn’t even make that one stick).
Juries very rarely invalidate patents. They are much, much, much more primed to believe that any patent is legit and not realize how many junk patents there are. They also are generally unaware of patent trolling and abusive behaviors by patent trolls that amount to little more than extortion. But here, the jury was convinced that the patent was bogus:
Perhaps it was because Cloudflare dug in during the trial and made Sable look like the extortionate troll it is. From the transcript, you see that Cloudflare’s lawyers got Sable to admit that its only actual business was suing people:
Q. I mean, that’s your business. Let’s don’t beat around the bush. You’re in the business of filing lawsuits, true?
A. Yes.
Q. And you would agree with me that you’ve been in that business for a while, right?
A. Yes.
Also, Cloudflare got Sable to admit that it does little to no research before filing its lawsuits.
Q. You believe it would be responsible, reasonable business practice to sit down and talk to folks before you sue them, right?
A. Yes.
Q. You didn’t do that here, did you, sir?
A. No.
Q. And you don’t do that as your practice, right?
A. That’s correct.
Q. You told this jury not 20 minutes ago that you sue every time. You don’t talk to anybody. That’s what you told them, fair?
A. Fair.
Q. And what you stood up here and told this jury is everybody in this industry, including me, sues first and talks later, correct?
A. Correct.
Q. But that’s just not true, is it, sir? The responsible business people in this business actually sit down and talk to folks before they sue them, fair?
A. Fair.
Q. And you don’t do that, do you, sir?
A. No.
I mean, that’s a thing of beauty.
Anyway, beyond just winning the case, Cloudflare has gotten Sable to (1) pay Cloudflare $225k for having to defend this nonsense lawsuit and (2) much more importantly, agree to release its entire patent portfolio to the public for anyone to use so that Sable can never sue over them again:
If you can’t see that screenshot from the agreement, it says:
DEDICATION TO THE PUBLIC OF THE SABLE PATENTS; ROYALTY FREE LICENSE AND RELEASE; PAYMENT BY SABLE TO CLOUDFLARE
2.1 Dedication To The Public Of The Sable Patents. Within twenty-one days of the Effective Date, the Sable Parties shall dedicate the Sable Patents to the public, including by filing and recording the appropriate document(s) and paying any applicable fee(s) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 253. For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 2.1 requires the Sable Parties to disclaim and dedicate to the public the entire term, or any terminal part of the term, of the Sable Patents granted or to be granted.
Now, I believe many of Sable’s patents are close to running out anyway. But still, what a huge victory, and one that should be celebrated. Cloudflare has truly gone past NewEgg’s “don’t settle” standard, to this impressive “don’t settle, and we will make you regret patent trolling, and do everything possible to stop you from ever patent trolling ever again, and we’ll make you feel bad too, because you deserve it.”
Filed Under: don't settle, patent trolls, patents, project jengo, trolling
Companies: cloudflare, sable networks
Comments on “Cloudflare Destroys Another Patent Troll, Gets Its Patents Released To The Public”
One way to win a fight is by attrition. Another way is to convince your opponent that getting back up from a knockdown will be a bigger mistake than starting the fight in the first place.
Cloudflare Destroys Another Patent Troll, Gets Its Patents Released To The Public, and Hears the Lamentations of Their Women
Re: Hero
Awesome comment
Sable Network’s attorneys don’t really care unless they get suspended or disbarred. They just find another shiftless git or failing company and just start all over again.
Re:
Sable Networks is basically nothing but attorneys. And perhaps some chump of an “investor”, who’ll likely be using those attorneys to make the most out of Sable’s bankruptcy.
On behalf of all of us “little guys” who cannot afford to fight back, THANK YOU, CLOUDFLARE!!!
Cloudflare isn’t satisfied with winning against these crooks, they humiliate. Publicly. Without mercy.
I like it.
Re:
No. The people involved in such things, pretty much by definition, have no sense of shame. But, as financial parasites, they’ll get Cloudflare’s message that going after them is a sure path to ruin.
Re:
TBH, if it’s possible for Sable Networks to be humiliated, then they really humiliated themselves.
Flawless Victory
Nothing like backing the parasitic scum into a corner so neatly that they have to admit, in court, that their entire business model isn’t producing anything but lawsuits and threats of them.
I’m not sure which is better, Cloudflare getting the patent extortionist’s entire patent portfolio nullified or spanking them so badly that they had to pay Cloudflare for the privilege of doing so.
Probably why they were on such a tear. These “people” can do a lot of damage in a relatively short amount of time.
Defending Linux Too
IBM also famously adopted this strategy, and (mostly) stuck with it despite facing a $5 billion lawsuit from SCO. It’s an excellent long term strategy in today’s day and age.
Re:
” despite facing a $5 billion lawsuit from SCO”
In which SCO was defeated multiple times.
Did SCO have to pay back the suckers that paid the $699?
Re: Re:
It was “SCO” in the same sense this was “Sable”: somebody bought the assets of a defunct company and turned it into a troll. (Kind of: the “SCO Group” who sued was different from “The Santa Cruz Operation”, which had been a real software company; this time, both “Sable IP” and “Sable Networks” sued, but don’t be fooled: the latter has nothing to do with networks anymore.)
To Quote the poet
Dane-geld
Rudyard Kipling
A.D. 980-1016
IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say:–
“We invaded you last night–we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:–
“Though we know we should defeat you,
we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:–
“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”
Re:
You know, despite how many times I’ve used the reference I had no idea it was from a poem or who had written it, so thanks for clearing both of those up for me.
Re: Re:
Danegeld or just geld, until people needed to specify which tax (and government policy) for historical or rhetorical reasons, was known as bad policy long before Kipling.
Not that you had indicated otherwise, but i felt compelled to a somewhat pedantic clarification, as one might.
Re: Re: Re:
My only familiarity with the term was from the phrase and now poem, so thanks for the additional information.
Re:
Weird how you put the title, then author, then subtitle. It looks as if “980-1016” are the birth and death dates of Kipling. 🙃
Re: Re: To Quote the poet
That was the way Kipling titled it. He was referencing the time when the “Danes” (or Vikings if you will) were pulling this stunt.
Cloudfare the Troll Slayer.
Has a nice ring to it, no?
This reminds me of Sonos vs Google. How the Judge blasts on Sonos for abusing patent system and throws out $32.5 million win against Google. ‘It is wrong that our patent system was used in this way,’ said Judge William Alsup in a decision that tore into Sonos for trying to ‘punish an innovator to enrich a pretender.’
That sound you hear is antidirt and Michael Slonecker angrily grinding their teeth before collapsing into each other’s arms, sobbing that another patent troll has fallen.
They have yet to pick a wedding date.