Cloudflare offers 100k prior art to nuke networking patents a troll has accused it of ripping off
Today, Cloudflare is announcing that it is putting up a 100k reward for prior art that invalidates four networking patents held by Blackbird Technologies, a patent troll that has been targeting Cloudflare and other companies with lawsuits.
This is the first time Cloudflare has offered a reward for prior art, and it’s doing so in the hopes of invalidating the patents before they can be used to extract settlements from other companies.
“These patents are bullshit,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said in an interview with Ars. “They’re abstract ideas that people have been implementing in different ways for decades. They’re not specific to any one implementation. And yet, because Blackbird has been so aggressive in sending out demand letters, we’ve seen a number of companies settle.”
The patents in question are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,180,60, 7,272,70, 7,290,60, and 7,415,80, all of which relate to methods of routing data over a network. Blackbird has accused Cloudflare of infringing on these patents with its Anycast technology, which is used to route traffic to the closest server to the user.
“Anycast is a well-known networking technique that has been implemented by companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft,” Prince said. “It’s absurd that Blackbird thinks it can own this fundamental building block of the Internet.”
In order to invalidate the patents, Cloudflare is asking for prior art that predates the filing dates of the patents (between 2001 and 2003). The reward will be paid out to the first person or team that provides prior art that leads to the invalidation of one of the patents.
“We’re hopeful that this reward will incentivize people to do a deep dive into their old networking textbooks and research papers to see if they can find something that invalidates these patents,” Prince said.
This is not the first time Cloudflare has taken a stand against patent trolls. In 2015, the company launched an “Anti-Patent Troll” product that allowed customers to block demand letters from patent trolls.
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The patents in question relate to Cloudflare’s Anycast technology
The patents in question relate to Cloudflare’s Anycast technology, which is a method of routing internet traffic to the closest server. Cloudflare is offering 100k prior art references to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in an effort to invalidate two patents held by Blackbird Technologies, a patent troll that has accused the company of infringing on its patents.
Anycast is a well-known and widely-used technology, so it’s hard to believe that Blackbird’s patents are valid. However, patent trolls often target big companies with deep pockets, and they sometimes succeed in getting them to pay settlements.
Cloudflare is fighting back against this patent troll, and its CEO says that he’s confident the USPTO will invalidate the patents in question. He also says that Cloudflare will continue to fight patent trolls, and he urges other companies to do the same.
Patent trolls are a major problem in the tech industry, and they stifle innovation and creativity. It’s good to see a company like Cloudflare fighting back against them.
Cloudflare is confident that the prior art it has collected will invalidate the patents
Cloudflare is confident that the prior art it has collected will invalidate the patents a troll has accused it of ripping off.
The troll, Blackbird Technologies, has accused Cloudflare of infringing on four of its patents. Cloudflare has responded by filing a request with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate the patents.
Cloudflare is confident that the prior art it has collected will invalidate the patents a troll has accused it of ripping off.
The troll, Blackbird Technologies, has accused Cloudflare of infringing on four of its patents. Cloudflare has responded by filing a request with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate the patents.
Cloudflare has collected over 100 pieces of prior art that it believes invalidates the patents. The prior art includes patents, papers, and products that predate the filing of the Blackbird patents.
“We are confident that this prior art invalidates the patents and we are hopeful that the USPTO will agree,” said Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince.
The USPTO will now review the prior art and decide whether to invalidate the patents. This process can take months or even years.
If the USPTO invalidates the patents, it will be a victory for Cloudflare and a setback for patent trolls. Patent trolls are companies that own patents but don’t produce products. They make money by suing companies that they claim are infringing on their patents.
Invalidating the patents would also be a victory for the open source community. Blackbird has sued several open source projects, including the Apache Software Foundation, in the past.
“We hope that by invalidating these patents, we can help discourage patent trolls from going after open source projects in the future,” said Prince.
This is not the first time that Cloudflare has taken action against patent trolls
This is not the first time that Cloudflare has taken action against patent trolls. The company has a long history of standing up to these kinds of lawsuits, and it has even gone so far as to offer a 100k bounty for any prior art that invalidates a patent that a troll has accused it of infringing.
This time, the troll in question is Uniloc, which has sued a number of companies over patents related to networking technology. Cloudflare is the latest target of Uniloc’s litigation, and the company is not backing down.
In a blog post, Cloudflare’s general counsel, Doug Kramer, wrote that the company will “vigorously defend” itself against Uniloc’s claims. Kramer also took a shot at patent trolls in general, writing that they “stifle innovation and hurt everyone except the lawyers getting rich off them.”
Cloudflare is no stranger to litigation, and it has always been willing to fight back against patent trolls. This latest lawsuit is just another example of the company’s commitment to standing up for itself and its users.
Conclusion
Cloudflare has offered 100,000 pieces of prior art to the company that has accused it of patent infringement, in order to prove that its networking patents are invalid. The troll has threatened to sue Cloudflare for patent infringement, but the company is confident that its prior art will be enough to prove that the patents are invalid.
