RPX Corp. is the defensive patent aggregator that Steve Hoffman, CEO of ThinkFire Services USA Ltd.,
introduced us to in a recent video interview. Founded in November by a couple of former execs at Intellectual Ventures, RPX buys patents to protect member companies against patent litigation from nonpracticing entities, often called trolls.
On Tuesday RPX issued a release announcing it has
signed five new members, adding Panasonic
Corp. (NYSE:PC), TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO) and others to a list that already included IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO). RPX says it now has 11 members and has acquired $70 million worth of technology patent rights.
Are the new members a sign of the times? RPX would say so. The company has a January post on its blog site marshaling some evidence that patent suits from trolls go up in recessions.
Interestingly, Intellectual Ventures, the alma mater of co-CEOs John Amster and Jefferey Barker, is considered by many in the intellectual property community to be a major potential troll.
What led them to start RPX? We hope to have a chance to ask them soon, and will report their answer here. -
Kenneth Klee
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