u can’t read tech websites these days without seeing news of yet another patent, copyright, design, or trademark lawsuit. You might be distracted by current events, but even long out of date programs such as Microsoft Office 95 are still being fought over in courts today.
You don’t need to be a Google or Motorola to have intellectual property (IP) lawsuit worries. Fortunately, you can you do work to prepare and prevent these issues from giving you a very bad day.
First, get a grip on threats your company might be facing. “The assessment of these type of corporate risks requires a team approach in which the CIO needs to be an integral player,” says Mark F. Radcliffe, a lawyer and partner at DLA Piper. “The most important issue is determining in which suits the goal is receiving the payment of royalties – all patent trolls, such as Intellectual Ventures and Microsoft in the smartphone wars — and which are competitive, with the intention to stop distribution of a product, such as [what] Polaroid did with Kodak on instant cameras.”
You may able to work your away around lawsuits where your attacker’s goal is simply to get a piece of your profits. But, if an IP lawsuit’s target is to put you out of business, get the nastiest IP attorneys you can afford, and prepare to fight it out to the bitter end.