“Sable is a patent troll. It doesn’t make, develop, innovate, or sell anything. 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.”
Lately, these patent profiteers have targeted the open source community. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Linux Foundation last month strengthened ties with United Patents, a company focused on defending against predatory patent claims.
“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,” said Terrell and Nemeroff.
Well, this is a big win for the small guys and open source projects, as patent trolls can put these guys out of business and stifle innovation.
Unfortunately, it takes a Big Tech company to use its finances to fight such patent trolls. Obviously the win benefits Cloudflare, but the positive benefits will flow far wider than for themselves.
See https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/03/patent_shakedown_fails_as_troll