Patents - Who cares? Right or Wrong?
Companies that innovate should and do care about their IP. And there's precedence in the Logistics and Supply Chain space that innovation and a strong IP strategy in fact pays well....
Supply Chain today may have become a buzz word for all the wrong reasons and leaders in lots of companies may operate with the mindset: “We can raise more capital and capture the market.”
But is it always that easy to catch up after arriving late at the party?
To understand this perspective, we need to both go back in time as well as look at recent history of some key patent lawsuits, well at least the ones we consider are worth discussing, and not the frivolous ones.
SAP & i2 Technologies
SAP agreed to pay i2 technologies $83M to settle a patent infringement lawsuit brought by i2 in 2006. A copy of the SEC filing is located below:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1009304/000119312508140820/d8k.htm
Oracle & i2 Technologies
https://sec.report/Document/0000950123-11-019318/
On February 25, 2011, the Company, i2 and Oracle Corporation entered into a settlement agreement (the “Agreement”). Under the Agreement, the parties entered into a cross-license arrangement and dismissed their respective litigation claims related to the patent infringement dispute with prejudice.
In addition, the Company is entitled to receive a one-time cash payment of $35,000,000 ($35M) from Oracle Corporation, payable within seven days of the Agreement date, as well as a $2,500,000 ($2.5M) license and technical support credit from Oracle Corporation that must be used by the Company within two years.
Apple ordered to pay $300 million in LTE patent dispute
Apple will have to pay another company a handsome amount to keep using certain wireless tech. Bloomberg and The Register report that a Texas jury has determined that Apple must pay patent firm Optis $300 million for allegedly violating patents covering LTE cellular service in devices like the iPhone and iPad. A jury had awarded Optis just over $506 million in 2020, but the judge in the case ordered a damages-only trial over concerns the earlier jurors hadn't considered whether the demand was fair for standards-based patents.
Optis is also chasing Apple in the UK, where it hopes to set a global royalty rate that could net up to $7 billion. Its patents come from other companies, including LG, Panasonic and Samsung.
https://www.engadget.com/apple-optis-lte-patent-lawsuit-payment-193858892.html
MORAL OF THE STORY
No amount of capital raise can overcome early innovation backed by a strong IP strategy and even the giants can’t escape it. So ignore at your own peril is the takeaway.
And having seen this playbook in many different cases and with many different companies over the last two decades, we knew not having a strong patent strategy was not an option, both for defensive and offensive reasons.
This is why we have done things the way we have to be able to play both defense and offense well.
KoiVision Platform is backed by 18 Patents that includes categories such as Yard and Warehouse Automation among other things.