IT services company fights against patent troll

Many U.S. businesses have felt the impact of patent infringement lawsuits, and recently, some have fought back against so-called patent trolls.

Steven Vicinanza received a letter in the mail saying his use of everyday business technology – specifically a computer scanner – interfered with a patent, and that his company was required to pay $1,000 per employee for a license to use the equipment.

The patent troll Project Paperless LLC had sent a number of these type of letters to people in the Atlanta area, according to the online publication ARS Technica. After Vicinanza, founder of BlueWave Computing, spoke with the lawyer representing Project Paperless, he was outraged to find out that anyone using a scanner to email PDF documents was allegedly infringing on a patent.

"Going after the end users may ultimately be more lucrative for them," one patent litigator at a technology company told the news source. "If they extract a small amount from each possible end user, the total amount might well end up being a much larger sum than they could ever get from the manufacturers. The ultimate pot of gold could end up being much bigger."

Vicinanza decided to go to court against Project Paperless after he found out that several of its subsidiaries were sending letters to companies all across Atlanta. However, before the suit could go to trial, the patent troll disappeared completely without reaching any settlement, according to the publication Slashgear.

Companies in Arizona that have received this type of letter should contact a Phoenix business attorney to fight against an intellectual property case with little or no legal standing.

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