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> "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 t
by mmoustafa 2y ago
> "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.
- CodeWriter23 2y agoSable 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.
- ozim 2y agoSo it was not justice - just predatory capitalism finding out that there is always a bigger fish. Cloudflare wasn’t doing that from goodness of their heart, they were protecting their own profits.
- shawabawa3 2y agoI'm sure it would have been cheaper (in the short term) for cloudflare to have just paid off the troll, like everyone else does It's absolutely a public service for them to have fought them
- SllX 2y agoBeating a patent troll in court is predatory capitalism? I think you’re forgetting Sable was the aggressor (aka the Plaintiff), and they lost their suit in a court of law. Nobody is obligated to roll over and show their bellies if they can win against an unjust lawsuit.
- floydnoel 2y agopatents are granted by the government. hardly seems like a problem with capitalism.
- account42 2y agoNewsflash: Property rights (including imaginary property i.e. artificial monopolies) are all granted and enforced by the government. As is currency.
- lazide 2y agoBwahaha, seriously? Next you’ll be calling someone shooting a burglar ‘predatory capitalism’ because hey, a house is capital and they were protecting it! And they totally could have let the burglar with a gun leave peacefully, or something.
- neom 2y agoMy 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-prince-on-tracking-down-the-bad-guys-1.1992413 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/cloudflare-s-matthew-pri...
- throwaway48476 2y ago[flagged]
- shmeeed 2y agoThe article the quote is from was written in 2014.
- itcrowd 2y agoNot 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"?
- aeadio 2y agoI imagine if later they try to renege on that public grant, CloudFlare is still shielded.
- bluelightning2k 2y agoGood spot, smart comment. Didn't occur to me but ofc you're right. Still feels good to see the troll fall
- jongjong 2y agoMaybe they had compromising info on their directors.
- bazzargh 2y agoFrom the Cloudflare version: "Sable IP is merely a shell entity formed to monetize (make money from) an ancient patent portfolio acquired by Sable Networks from Caspian Networks in 2006. Caspian Networks was a router company that went out of business nearly 20 years ago" ... if the patent portfolio is 20 years old, they must all be right at the end of their lifetime (the one in the lawsuit expired a year ago). Probably not worth it for Sable to keep them.