Cloudflare successfully defeats patent trolls, forces them to pay damages, and then makes the patents public so that they can never again engage in patent trolling activities

Cloudflare has announced that it has not only won its lawsuit against patent troll Sable, but also forced Sable to make its patents public, preventing it from filing similar lawsuits in the future, and has also won damages.

Patent troll Sable pays up, dedicates all its patents to the public!

https://blog.cloudflare.com/patent-troll-sable-pays-up/

Sable is a patent troll company that does not develop or sell its own products, but instead 'monetizes' its patents by suing other companies for infringing its patents. In March 2021, it filed a lawsuit against Cloudflare for 100 infringement counts related to four patents.

While many companies choose to settle, Cloudflare chose to fight back. In February 2024, it won a ruling that the patent was invalid, successfully defeating Sable.

Cloudflare sued by 'patent golo' but wins big victory by defeating patent invalidity ruling - GIGAZINE

According to Cloudflare, in this trial, Sable tried hard to apply decades-old hardware-based router-related patents to Cloudflare's modern software-based system. Because it was a jury trial, Cloudflare needed to clearly explain to the jury how the patents differed from Cloudflare's system in order to win.

Below is one of the slides Cloudflare presented to the jury during the trial, highlighting which parts of the patent are different.

The patent uses micro-flow based routing, whereas Cloudflare uses packet based routing.

The patent also called for hardware components called 'line cards' to perform certain processes, but Cloudflare's system did not have any 'line cards.' Sable tried unsuccessfully to convince the jury that Cloudflare's various software and hardware constituted 'line cards.'

Cloudflare not only demonstrated that its system did not infringe the patents, but also investigated the relevant patents and showed that the patents used by Sable in its lawsuit were themselves obvious over prior patents, thereby invalidating the patents in question.

In patent litigation, even after the jury's verdict, numerous procedures are required, such as post-trial motions and appeals. In order to accept defeat and end the litigation, Sable agreed to pay Cloudflare $225,000 (approximately 33 million yen) in damages and to make its patents publicly available so that they can never be asserted against other companies again.

Cloudflare made the patent troll company pay damages and then made the patent public, making it impossible for them to engage in patent trolling again. It also left a message to patent troll companies around the world to be careful before fighting Cloudflare.