{"id":4457,"date":"2013-03-20T13:13:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T13:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=3687"},"modified":"2013-04-11T23:29:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T03:29:36","slug":"bta-summit-offers-strategies-to-take-down-the-patent-trollers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2013\/03\/bta-summit-offers-strategies-to-take-down-the-patent-trollers\/","title":{"rendered":"BTA Summit Offers Strategies to Take Down the Patent Trolls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sleazy<\/a>\u201cThey\u2019re terrorists. They terrorize the end user.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s BTA General Counsel Bob Goldberg\u2019s take on patent trolls at a BTA-sponsored industry summit on March 14 to address this escalating industry issue. These patent trolls are actually attorneys who are out to extort money from end users who use their MFPs for network scanning and scan-to-email.<\/p>\n

Summit attendees were mostly legal representatives from the OEMs who have been seeing more of these letters from their end users and are looking to BTA to provide a sense of direction as to how to handle this issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatent trolls are people who enforce patents but don\u2019t produce a product or perform a service under the patent,\u201d explained Goldberg. \u201cBasically, all they do is walk around trying to enforce these patents.\u201d<\/p>\n

These letters are going out in the thousands from what Goldberg describes as \u201can alphabet soup of companies\u201d with names like Project Paperless and GanPan, LLC. In Illinois where Goldberg is based, he looked into where they\u2019re getting the names of the companies they\u2019re targeting only to find there\u2019s no rhyme or reason.<\/p>\n

Project Paperless, for example, simply used a listing of Best Businesses in Atlanta. Companies across the country are receiving similar letters even though Goldberg doesn\u2019t believe that the patent trolls have any information about these patent violations at all. It\u2019s phishing plain and simple.<\/p>\n

Some companies have even received multiple letters, including draft lawsuits. Without going into minute detail on the four patents the patent trolls are looking to enforce, the two most prominent are U.S. Patent No. 7,986,426 (Distributed Computer Architecture and Process for Document Management) and U.S. Patent No. 7,477,410 (Distributed Computer Architecture and Process for Virtual Copying).<\/p>\n

For many of the attorneys in the room who have seen these letters, and some are quite detailed, Goldberg and others acknowledge that they\u2019re difficult even for patent attorneys to decipher.<\/p>\n

An attorney from Atlanta who Goldberg invited to the Summit (attendee names with the exception of Goldberg\u2019s remain confidential), because she has gone up against one of these patent trolls, has spoken with about 100 people who have received these letters. She presented her research on some of the organizations doing the patent trolling. What she discovered was that many of these firms have been created with what appears to be the sole purpose of trolling for patents, mostly by targeting smaller businesses even though some Fortune 500 companies have been approached as well and asking for a licensing fee, in some instances up to $1,000 per employee, to use the technology. If they don\u2019t pay, they threaten legal action.<\/p>\n

At this point no legal action has been taken by the patent trolls and Goldberg and BTA, and some of the attorneys from the OEMs in the room, would welcome that challenge. \u201cIt would be a tremendous opportunity for us to see what\u2019s behind it and put an end to it perhaps forever,\u201d states Goldberg.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the patent trolls are not going after the OEMs or the dealer and saying that the equipment itself violates the patent, but the process of scanning a document over a network and sending it as an e-mail does. \u201cSome say these processes are obvious and there are all sorts of claims that can be made to them, so getting our ducks in a row would be helpful,\u201d notes Goldberg.<\/p>\n

Reportedly, some companies who have received these letters have paid the licensing fees even if it wasn\u2019t for the original asking amount. As Goldberg points out, they\u2019ll go to their local attorney who isn\u2019t sophisticated about patent laws and who tells them it could be a tremendous settlement, so they settle for some fee, which then allows the patent trolls to tell other targets that other companies like them have recognized the claim and settled. \u201cAnd the cycle goes on,\u201d states Goldberg. \u201cThe more money you give these trolls the better financed they are to continue. It\u2019s up to BTA to educate and stop it before it grows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some end users receiving these letters contact their dealer, who in turn contacts the OEM, looking for answers. \u201cThat\u2019s a problem for the dealer community and the manufacturer,\u201d says Goldberg. \u201cOur images are being tarnished by this whole process. The villains are the lawyers who are out there trolling for dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they bring suit against somebody, we\u2019re in it, like it or not,\u201d adds a legal rep from one of the OEMs.<\/p>\n

While Goldberg says the industry can\u2019t give legal advice to end users, it must come up with ways to help them.<\/p>\n

Although various courses of action were discussed at the Summit, the initial course of action is the creation of an industry white paper by BTA, which will be distributed to dealers and OEMs to provide to customers, educating them about the patent trolling issue. This is similar to what BTA did with the data security issue a couple of years ago. Other actions are still under discussion.<\/p>\n

For now Goldberg doesn\u2019t expect the patent trolls to initiate any litigation. \u201cBut if there is, BTA will step up to the plate and take this on hook line and sinker to the nth degree,\u201d emphasizes Goldberg.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, WNBC News is putting together an investigative report from a consumer perspective on this issue, following a company that received one of these letters. It will be interesting to see if that piece has the same impact as the news story on data security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey\u2019re terrorists. They terrorize the end user.\u201d That\u2019s BTA General Counsel Bob Goldberg\u2019s take on patent trolls at a BTA-sponsored industry summit on March 14 to address this escalating industry issue. These patent trolls are actually attorneys who are out to extort money from end users who use their MFPs for network scanning and scan-to-email. Summit attendees were mostly legal representatives from the OEMs who have been seeing more of these letters from their end users and are looking to BTA to provide a sense of direction as to how to handle this issue. \u201cPatent trolls are people who enforce patents but don\u2019t produce a product or perform a service under the patent,\u201d explained Goldberg. \u201cBasically, all they do is walk around trying to enforce these patents.\u201d These letters are going out in the thousands from what Goldberg describes as \u201can alphabet soup of companies\u201d with names like Project Paperless and GanPan, LLC. In Illinois where Goldberg is based, he looked into where they\u2019re getting the names of the companies they\u2019re targeting only to find there\u2019s no rhyme or reason. Project Paperless, for example, simply used a listing of Best Businesses in Atlanta. Companies across the country are receiving similar letters even though Goldberg doesn\u2019t believe that the patent trolls have any information about these patent violations at all. It\u2019s phishing plain and simple. Some companies have even received multiple letters, including draft lawsuits. Without going into minute detail on the four patents the patent trolls are looking to enforce, the two most prominent are U.S. Patent No. 7,986,426 (Distributed Computer Architecture and Process for Document Management) and U.S. Patent No. 7,477,410 (Distributed Computer Architecture and Process for Virtual Copying). For many of the attorneys in the room who have seen these letters, and some are quite detailed, Goldberg and others acknowledge that they\u2019re difficult even for patent attorneys to decipher. An attorney from Atlanta who Goldberg invited to the Summit (attendee names with the exception of Goldberg\u2019s remain confidential), because she has gone up against one of these patent trolls, has spoken with about 100 people who have received these letters. She presented her research on some of the organizations doing the patent trolling. What she discovered was that many of these firms have been created with what appears to be the sole purpose of trolling for patents, mostly by targeting smaller businesses even though some Fortune 500 companies have been approached as well and asking for a licensing fee, in some instances up to $1,000 per employee, to use the technology. If they don\u2019t pay, they threaten legal action. At this point no legal action has been taken by the patent trolls and Goldberg and BTA, and some of the attorneys from the OEMs in the room, would welcome that challenge. \u201cIt would be a tremendous opportunity for us to see what\u2019s behind it and put an end to it perhaps forever,\u201d states Goldberg. To be clear, the patent trolls are not going after the OEMs or the dealer and saying that the equipment itself violates the patent, but the process of scanning a document over a network and sending it as an e-mail does. \u201cSome say these processes are obvious and there are all sorts of claims that can be made to them, so getting our ducks in a row would be helpful,\u201d notes Goldberg. Reportedly, some companies who have received these letters have paid the licensing fees even if it wasn\u2019t for the original asking amount. As Goldberg points out, they\u2019ll go to their local attorney who isn\u2019t sophisticated about patent laws and who tells them it could be a tremendous settlement, so they settle for some fee, which then allows the patent trolls to tell other targets that other companies like them have recognized the claim and settled. \u201cAnd the cycle goes on,\u201d states Goldberg. \u201cThe more money you give these trolls the better financed they are to continue. It\u2019s up to BTA to educate and stop it before it grows.\u201d Some end users receiving these letters contact their dealer, who in turn contacts the OEM, looking for answers. \u201cThat\u2019s a problem for the dealer community and the manufacturer,\u201d says Goldberg. \u201cOur images are being tarnished by this whole process. The villains are the lawyers who are out there trolling for dollars.\u201d \u201cIf they bring suit against somebody, we\u2019re in it, like it or not,\u201d adds a legal rep from one of the OEMs. While Goldberg says the industry can\u2019t give legal advice to end users, it must come up with ways to help them. Although various courses of action were discussed at the Summit, the initial course of action is the creation of an industry white paper by BTA, which will be distributed to dealers and OEMs to provide to customers, educating them about the patent trolling issue. This is similar to what BTA did with the data security issue a couple of years ago. Other actions are still under discussion. For now Goldberg doesn\u2019t expect the patent trolls to initiate any litigation. \u201cBut if there is, BTA will step up to the plate and take this on hook line and sinker to the nth degree,\u201d emphasizes Goldberg. In the meantime, WNBC News is putting together an investigative report from a consumer perspective on this issue, following a company that received one of these letters. It will be interesting to see if that piece has the same impact as the news story on data security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[120,127,441],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4576,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}