Patent Law

As a follow-up to my January 26, 2009 and March 16, 2009 posts on RPX, the following news is excerpted from an RPX press release issued today:

RPX Corporation, a defensive patent aggregator, today announced it completed a Series B round of venture financing from Index Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm. Original RPX investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Charles River Ventures also participated in the round.

RPX introduced the first Defensive Patent Aggregation Service in November 2008 to reduce patent assertion and litigation costs initiated by non-practicing entities (NPEs) ? a persistent problem that costs technology companies around the world billions of dollars annually. NPEs acquire patents, as opposed to creating them through research and development, solely for the purpose of offensive licensing and litigation against operating companies.

In contrast, RPX acquires patent rights and provides them as a defensive patent aggregation for its members, which pay annual fees ranging from $35,000 to $4.9 million depending on company size. Members benefit from RPX?s entire portfolio, and fees can be less than the cost of even a single patent assertion defense.

"RPX has created a great white-hat business by providing a very compelling solution to a well recognized and growing problem faced by many companies worldwide," said Giuseppe Zocco, partner and co-founder, Index Ventures.

Fourteen top technology companies have joined the RPX Defensive Patent Aggregation Service since its introduction in November last year. To date, RPX has acquired more than $90 million in patent rights in the mobile, Internet search, telecommunications, consumer electronics and RFID markets.

Download Rpx.seriesb press release.