Vendors Fight Back Against at 'Patent Trolls'

<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/30/technology/patents.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008063012">CNN Money</a>, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/06/30/tech-giants-band-together-to-buy-and-sell-patents-but-not-for-profit/?mod=googlenews_wsj">The Wall Street Journal</a>

Jim Manico, OWASP Global Board Member

June 30, 2008

1 Min Read

Eleven high-tech companies have joined forces to safeguard themselves from costly patent lawsuits.Allied Security Trust, a nonprofit group that includes Google, Apple, HP and Cisco, plans to buy intellectual property of interest to its member businesses before "patent trolls" can do so. Members pay $250,000 to join Allied and contribute about $5 million, which goes into an escrow account and is used toward patent purchases. Allied will sell the patents it acquires after members have granted themselves a nonexclusive license to the underlying technology.

The group won't face antitrust issues because it doesn't actually own the patents, and because it's nonprofit, said Allied CEO Brian Hinman, a former VP of intellectual property and licensing at IBM.CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal

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About the Author(s)

Jim Manico

OWASP Global Board Member

Jim Manico is a Global Board Member for the OWASP foundation where he helps drive the strategic vision for the organization. OWASP's mission is to make software security visible, so that individuals and organizations worldwide can make informed decisions about true software security risks. OWASP's AppSecUSA<https://2015.appsecusa.org/c/> conferences represent the nonprofit's largest outreach efforts to advance its mission of spreading security knowledge, for more information and to register, see here<https://2015.appsecusa.org/c/?page_id=534>. Jim is also the founder of Manicode Security where he trains software developers on secure coding and security engineering. He has a 18 year history building software as a developer and architect. Jim is a frequent speaker on secure software practices and is a member of the JavaOne rockstar speaker community. He is the author of Iron-Clad Java: Building Secure Web Applications<http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Clad-Java-Building-Secure-Applications/dp/0071835881> from McGraw-Hill and founder of Brakeman Pro. Investor/Advisor for Signal Sciences.

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