> "In the end, Sable agreed to pay Cloudflare $225,000, grant Cloudflare a royalty-free license to its entire patent portfolio, and to dedicate its patents to the public, ensuring that Sable can never again assert them against another company,"
Holy cow, that’s incredible. Cloudflare has single-handedly shut down one of the biggest tech patent trolls. I don’t know how they possibly got Sable to agree to those terms, but kudos to Cloudflare counsel.
My understanding is that it comes from the top, kudos to CF counsel for sure, but also Matthew Prince who has a storied career of fucking with bad actors. Thanks Matthew!
Sable was on the hook for costs after losing. I imagine this settlement was a fraction of what they owed. If there is truly justice in this world, Sable principals will have to go out of pocket for tax liabilities and costs associated with shutting it down.
Patent trolls are looking for easy money, this instance may have cost them a lot of money, but future patent trolls are much more likely to not go after them and go for the targets that just rolled over and payed sable.
They also can claim a clear moral victory of doing the right thing and stopping sable from continuing to harass companies doing actual work.
This is like hitting back a bully in highschool: you will probably lose the fight, and even ifyou win you'll get good bruises. But in the long term you win, because now everybody knows you will hit back.
Sabre was a charming little Santa Clara network company, decades ago.
But some incompetent entrepreneurs and a shabby LA law firm tried to win at a patent trolling. The outcome is hilarious only because I am not paying Cloudflare's lawyers.
18 comments:
> "In the end, Sable agreed to pay Cloudflare $225,000, grant Cloudflare a royalty-free license to its entire patent portfolio, and to dedicate its patents to the public, ensuring that Sable can never again assert them against another company,"
Holy cow, that’s incredible. Cloudflare has single-handedly shut down one of the biggest tech patent trolls. I don’t know how they possibly got Sable to agree to those terms, but kudos to Cloudflare counsel.
My understanding is that it comes from the top, kudos to CF counsel for sure, but also Matthew Prince who has a storied career of fucking with bad actors. Thanks Matthew!
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/cloudflare-s-matthew-pri...
Sable was on the hook for costs after losing. I imagine this settlement was a fraction of what they owed. If there is truly justice in this world, Sable principals will have to go out of pocket for tax liabilities and costs associated with shutting it down.
Not sure whether I understood the following :
If Sable dedicates their patents to the public, what does it mean for CF to be granted a "royalty-free license to its entire patent portfolio"?
I imagine if later they try to renege on that public grant, CloudFlare is still shielded.
They probably had compromising info on their directors.
It likely cost CF millions in legal fees. It's not exactly a win in the fight against patent trolls.
Patent trolls are looking for easy money, this instance may have cost them a lot of money, but future patent trolls are much more likely to not go after them and go for the targets that just rolled over and payed sable.
They also can claim a clear moral victory of doing the right thing and stopping sable from continuing to harass companies doing actual work.
This is like hitting back a bully in highschool: you will probably lose the fight, and even ifyou win you'll get good bruises. But in the long term you win, because now everybody knows you will hit back.
It's an expensive win, but how is it not a win? A troll is dead.
Although this is a dupe of a ~1500pt previous discussion, I'd love to see these news on HN front page for several days. It's so delighting to read
Sabre was a charming little Santa Clara network company, decades ago.
But some incompetent entrepreneurs and a shabby LA law firm tried to win at a patent trolling. The outcome is hilarious only because I am not paying Cloudflare's lawyers.
Sabre or Sable?
Thanks for the context, not sure why people downvoting you.
Because it's "Sable" not "Sabre" (That's why I downvoted.)
I regret my typo, which remains.
Discussion on the Cloudflare announcement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41730415
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41730415