Bloomberg Law
May 11, 2018, 10:23 AM UTC

Tech Giants Offer Startups Free Patents in Bid to Foil Lawsuits

• Non-profit group seeks to keep members out of litigation • Idea comes from lessons learned after dot-coms crashed

Red Hat Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. are giving away free patents to any startup that joins a group of more than 200 companies devoted to keeping its members and their patents out of court.

It’s a carrot to entice startup companies to join the LOT Network, a nonprofit created by Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Canon Inc. four years ago to combat litigation by patent assertion companies, known derisively as “trolls,” that don’t make any products but seek royalties by challenging ...

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