Thursday, December 01, 2022 10:02:23 PM
let's NOT FORGET, carter is looking out for the little guys LOL (the 3 inventors in their 70's & the hundreds of shareholders)
ARTICLE ~ William ‘Billy’ Carter, who owns Clouding IP and UO! IP in Greensboro, is often referred to as a ‘troll’ by people who don’t like what his companies do. Carter, however, argues his firm is just looking out for the little guys.
DO THESE COMMENTS SOUND LIKE SOMEONE THAT WOULD concede to a paltry $125M for $1B+ patents
ARTICLE ~
We’re bound by confidentiality, so I can’t discuss it other than to say we were pleased
turn idle patents into cash cows
These patents provide very core technologies that allow folks to achieve their goals, and we just want to be compensated for it
If all patents were better vetted, nobody would be arguing about infringing. It could just be a matter of what a license is really worth
_______________________
By Matt Evans – Reporter, Triad Business Journal
Mar 21, 2014
People who don’t like William “Billy” Carter and his company Clouding IP may call him names — “troll” perhaps the most common — but one thing they can’t accuse him of: only picking on little guys.
Carter, who was born in Elkin and lives in Greensboro, has gone up against some of the biggest names in corporate media: The New York Times Co., Thompson-Reuters, CNN, Fox News and others.
William ‘Billy’ Carter, who owns Clouding IP and UO! IP in Greensboro, is often referred to as a ‘troll’ by people who don’t like what his companies do. Carter, however, argues his firm is just looking out for the little guys.
William ‘Billy’ Carter, who owns Clouding IP and UO! IP in Greensboro, is often… more
His claim in a series of lawsuits filed by Clouding IP in 2012: Those companies infringed on patents Clouding IP acquired from computer security software firm Symantec by using cloud-based technologies for data manipulation on their websites and mobile apps. Clouding IP also made similar claims against big cloud companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google.
Some cases continue, but Carter says Clouding IP has settled its dispute with the media companies. But he won’t go into detail.
“We’re bound by confidentiality, so I can’t discuss it other than to say we were pleased,” Carter says.
The “troll” accusations against Carter come not just from his Clouding IP activities, but also from his close association with Dallas-based IPNav. According to a New York Times profile in 2013, IPNav has sued more than 1,600 companies in the past five years. Carter works closely with IPNav and its founder, Erich Spangenberg, to “turn idle patents into cash cows,” as a banner on IPNav’s website describes it.
There’s no single accepted definition of “patent troll,” but it’s never meant as a compliment. So how does Carter react to the use of that term?
“I don’t think it’s fair,” he says, though he doesn’t deny there are bad actors in the patent assertion business. Trolls, in his mind, are those that deal in weak patents and frivolous lawsuits. Clouding IP’s patents, he argues, are both valid and valuable.
“Most every industry in the country is moving toward cloud services as the mechanism that allows us to go about business more cost-effectively,” he says. “These patents provide very core technologies that allow folks to achieve their goals, and we just want to be compensated for it.”
Fighting trolls himself?
Part of Carter’s own professional portfolio is as troll-fighter himself. He’s president of IPCM Advisors, a company started by IPNav that defends companies accused of patent infringement.
A blog post on the IPCM website says the Innovation Act reform proposals are a “huge step in the right direction,” though in an interview Carter says there has been too much influence on the legislation exerted by big companies with an interest in stifling competition from smaller rivals. The most important reform that could happen, he says, is to empower the Patent and Trademark Office to improve the quality of the patents it issues — make them clearer with better defined claims — and have disputes handled only in specialized courts with the expertise necessary to judge claims fairly and efficiently.
Through his various roles, Carter has the legal field covered when it comes to patents — asserting infringement sometimes, defending against infringement claims at others. Would it really be in his interest to reform the system in a way that results in fewer court battles?
Absolutely, he says. Better patents would be easier to enforce on the one hand, and make it easier to disprove a phony infringement allegation on the other. But even more importantly, they simply wouldn’t end up in court so often.
“Right now, courts are dictating what a patent asset is worth, and that’s not an efficient system,” he says. “If all patents were better vetted, nobody would be arguing about infringing. It could just be a matter of what a license is really worth, just like buying a stock or a bond or a piece of real estate. What we’re doing now weakens our system even while China is strengthening theirs, and how can we make sense of that?
https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2014/03/21/a-troll-or-a-foe-of-trolls.html
ARTICLE ~ William ‘Billy’ Carter, who owns Clouding IP and UO! IP in Greensboro, is often referred to as a ‘troll’ by people who don’t like what his companies do. Carter, however, argues his firm is just looking out for the little guys.
DO THESE COMMENTS SOUND LIKE SOMEONE THAT WOULD concede to a paltry $125M for $1B+ patents
ARTICLE ~
We’re bound by confidentiality, so I can’t discuss it other than to say we were pleased
turn idle patents into cash cows
These patents provide very core technologies that allow folks to achieve their goals, and we just want to be compensated for it
If all patents were better vetted, nobody would be arguing about infringing. It could just be a matter of what a license is really worth
_______________________
By Matt Evans – Reporter, Triad Business Journal
Mar 21, 2014
People who don’t like William “Billy” Carter and his company Clouding IP may call him names — “troll” perhaps the most common — but one thing they can’t accuse him of: only picking on little guys.
Carter, who was born in Elkin and lives in Greensboro, has gone up against some of the biggest names in corporate media: The New York Times Co., Thompson-Reuters, CNN, Fox News and others.
William ‘Billy’ Carter, who owns Clouding IP and UO! IP in Greensboro, is often referred to as a ‘troll’ by people who don’t like what his companies do. Carter, however, argues his firm is just looking out for the little guys.
William ‘Billy’ Carter, who owns Clouding IP and UO! IP in Greensboro, is often… more
His claim in a series of lawsuits filed by Clouding IP in 2012: Those companies infringed on patents Clouding IP acquired from computer security software firm Symantec by using cloud-based technologies for data manipulation on their websites and mobile apps. Clouding IP also made similar claims against big cloud companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google.
Some cases continue, but Carter says Clouding IP has settled its dispute with the media companies. But he won’t go into detail.
“We’re bound by confidentiality, so I can’t discuss it other than to say we were pleased,” Carter says.
The “troll” accusations against Carter come not just from his Clouding IP activities, but also from his close association with Dallas-based IPNav. According to a New York Times profile in 2013, IPNav has sued more than 1,600 companies in the past five years. Carter works closely with IPNav and its founder, Erich Spangenberg, to “turn idle patents into cash cows,” as a banner on IPNav’s website describes it.
There’s no single accepted definition of “patent troll,” but it’s never meant as a compliment. So how does Carter react to the use of that term?
“I don’t think it’s fair,” he says, though he doesn’t deny there are bad actors in the patent assertion business. Trolls, in his mind, are those that deal in weak patents and frivolous lawsuits. Clouding IP’s patents, he argues, are both valid and valuable.
“Most every industry in the country is moving toward cloud services as the mechanism that allows us to go about business more cost-effectively,” he says. “These patents provide very core technologies that allow folks to achieve their goals, and we just want to be compensated for it.”
Fighting trolls himself?
Part of Carter’s own professional portfolio is as troll-fighter himself. He’s president of IPCM Advisors, a company started by IPNav that defends companies accused of patent infringement.
A blog post on the IPCM website says the Innovation Act reform proposals are a “huge step in the right direction,” though in an interview Carter says there has been too much influence on the legislation exerted by big companies with an interest in stifling competition from smaller rivals. The most important reform that could happen, he says, is to empower the Patent and Trademark Office to improve the quality of the patents it issues — make them clearer with better defined claims — and have disputes handled only in specialized courts with the expertise necessary to judge claims fairly and efficiently.
Through his various roles, Carter has the legal field covered when it comes to patents — asserting infringement sometimes, defending against infringement claims at others. Would it really be in his interest to reform the system in a way that results in fewer court battles?
Absolutely, he says. Better patents would be easier to enforce on the one hand, and make it easier to disprove a phony infringement allegation on the other. But even more importantly, they simply wouldn’t end up in court so often.
“Right now, courts are dictating what a patent asset is worth, and that’s not an efficient system,” he says. “If all patents were better vetted, nobody would be arguing about infringing. It could just be a matter of what a license is really worth, just like buying a stock or a bond or a piece of real estate. What we’re doing now weakens our system even while China is strengthening theirs, and how can we make sense of that?
https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2014/03/21/a-troll-or-a-foe-of-trolls.html
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