Security and video surveillance vendor Genetec triumphs over patent troll

Canadian cyber security and video surveillance vendor Genetec has won a patent infringement lawsuit in the US against a non-practicing entity (NPE).

NPEs, also known as “patent trolls”, are individuals or companies that hold a patent for a product or process but have no intentions of developing it.

Genetec said the NPE withdrew the lawsuit at an early stage of the proceedings, and even paid an undisclosed sum to the vendor.

In an announcement, Genetec said legal attacks from non-practicing entities are an unfortunate part of the technology business. The company cited a report from unifiedpatents.com that said those sorts of legal attacks represent a reported 90 percent of high-tech patent litigation cases in 2019 alone.

Genetec president Pierre Racz said, “Unlike the way many other companies deal with these sorts of attacks, we do not negotiate payment with patent trolls.”

“Despite the potentially high cost of litigation, bending to their anti-innovation tactics only encourages their behavior and, as a matter of principle, Genetec will always vigorously defend its technology and the hard work of the people who create it.”

“Though we have quietly followed this course since the first patent troll arrived at our door, we felt that this occasion was a good time to speak out against this practice.”

Genetec director of intellectual property Jean-Yves Pikulik said the victory represents an important symbolic victory for Genetec, and a clear demonstration of the company’s policy of never paying nuisance value settlements.

“While we would much rather spend our time patenting our innovations than fighting off patent trolls, we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against NPEs and seek legal costs in lawsuits that we perceive as frivolous.”