TV maker Vizio may finally get paid after beating 17th patent troll

Electronic Frontier Foundation graphic created by EFF Senior Designer Hugh D’Andrade to illustrate EFF’s work against patent trolls – CC-BY

Patent trolls are parasites. They contribute nothing, only hoping to skim the wealth of others. Now, at last, someone is fighting back.

On the verge of a fee award, after a “harassing and vexatious” lawsuit.

Lawsuits brought by “patent trolls,” companies that have no product but file barrages of patent lawsuits, have become commonplace across the tech sector. For the few companies that choose to fight these cases until the end, it’s an expensive endeavor, since defending a patent suit can cost anywhere from $1 million to several times that amount.

Television maker Vizio is one of the companies that fights back. It’s beaten no less than 16 “non-practicing entities,” and last week, the company released a statement showcasing its list of patent troll cases that ended in a key statistic: “$0 to plaintiff.” The list includes the usual bizarrely named shells, like “E-Contact Techs” and “Man Machine Interface,” as well as well-known patent holding companies like Walker Digital and Intellectual Ventures (whose patents were used by Pragmatus Telecom, one of the shells Vizio sent packing.)

Source: TV maker Vizio may finally get paid after beating 17th patent troll | Ars Technica