Go getum Cisco!

I want to commend and encourage Cisco, the network equipment maker, for taking on the patent trolls! Instead of mounting a straight forward defense or just rolling over, Cisco is calling these folks out for racketeering and extortion.

Trolls are those folks who buy up patents just so that they can file lawsuits against innocent end users on the expectation that small companies will agree to a cash settlement. The trolls add nothing of value. They don't invent anything and they don't produce anything. They simply buy up patents that the real inventors no longer want and sue innocent folks who have no knowledge of the patented technology. They make unreasonable demands for discovery. They distract management's attention. They force companies to hire lawyers to defend themselves against something they had no knowledge of being involved with in the first place. If you want them to let your company alone, you have to pay protection money. It sounds like racketeering and extortion to me!

I was involved with one of these suits a number of years ago. I had to allow the troll's lawyers and legal experts to tour multiple plants, gaining access to confidential processes. I had to provide them with 10's of thousands of pages of drawings and documentation. They had no intention of looking at any of it. It was just their way of being annoying. I showed them systems that pre-dated their purchased patent by 10 years. They claimed it violated their patent.

The trolls are bullies. They won't take on someone their own size. As reported in The Wall St. Journal, in the Cisco case they are suing coffee shops and hotels, not Cisco. In other cases, trolls have sued users of Rockwell Automation equipment, not Rockwell. By suing small guys for moderate amounts, their hope is that small businesses will just pay to make the problem go away.

Presumably it is illegal to shake down shop owners for protection from physical violence. This is a more subtle form of violence. It is financial violence, permitted by patent and legal systems that are broken and out of date. If the newly elected folks in Washington can't agree on anything else, maybe they could take some time to make this type of extortion illegal.

If your company gets drawn in to one of these fights, encourage them to stand up for principles. Before you get drawn in (because you will eventually if this is allowed to flourish), encourage your elected representatives to do something constructive. And if the opportunity presents itself, send encouragement and support to Cisco for standing up to bullies.

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