A Scam On Scanners?

A tip of the hat to ars technica for a detailed, if depressing, glimpse at another corner of the patent troll world. For those (many) businesses who found Innovatio IP Ventures’ patent “licensing” campaign against companies which use Wi–Fi (in other words, most every sizeable enterprise) alarming, ars technica’s journalistic piece may introduce the next generation of patent trolls targeting companies for the use of basic, ubiquitous technology:  Scanners which scan documents to email.

Ars technica is (no doubt rightly) dubious about the merits of these patents by Project Paperless a/k/aAdzPro a/k/a GosNel a/k/a FasLan a/k/a [Insert Shell Company Name Here], as are commentators. Regardless, however, it appears unfortunately likely that many recipients of these types of letters will continue to pay so long as the licensing “fee” is priced below the expected cost of litigation. After all, “millions for defense, not one cent for tribute,” may be a stirring historical slogan, but it may not always be sound business policy.

Nonetheless, we applaud those, like BlueWave, who are willing to challenge dubious claims, even at some expense—thus suggesting to future trolls they are more than just a blank checkbook.

Posted by Stacy Stitham