MONTRÉAL — Legal attacks from non-practicing entities, or “patent trolls,” represented a reported 90% of high-tech patent litigation cases in 2019.
Genetec says it understands that legal attacks from non-practicing entities are an unfortunate part of the technology business and has chosen to stay private in regards to patent infringements involving the company … until now.
Today, Genetec announces that a patent infringement lawsuit initiated by a non-practicing entity (NPE) was withdrawn by the NPE at an early stage of the proceedings.
In a rare result, the NPE paid an undisclosed sum to Genetec. In patent litigation in the United States, it is highly unusual for a plaintiff to pay a defendant to resolve a case, according to a release from the company.
Genetec describes patent trolling as involving groups that don’t create technology, but rather aggregate patents that are generally of no technological value to use as the basis to initiate IP infringement cases against businesses.
“Unlike the way many other companies deal with these sorts of attacks, we do not negotiate payment with patent trolls,” says Pierre Racz, president of Genetec. “Despite the potentially high cost of litigation, bending to their anti-innovation tactics only encourages their behavior and, as a matter of principle, Genetec will always vigorously defend its technology and the hard work of the people who create it. Though we have quietly followed this course since the first patent troll arrived at our door, we felt that this occasion was a good time to speak out against this practice.”
Genetec Director of Intellectual Property Jean-Yves Pikulik adds, “This represents an important symbolic victory for Genetec, and a clear demonstration of our policy of never paying nuisance value settlements. While we would much rather spend our time patenting our innovations than fighting off patent trolls, we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against NPEs and seek legal costs in lawsuits that we perceive as frivolous.”
This resolution settles all outstanding claims by the non-practicing entity against Genetec.
