ARRI is flexing its legal muscle by publicly stating their intentions to fight “patent trolls” that threaten lighting products in the US. Without naming names, ARRI announced the challenges to multiple patents that they claim were granted erroneously. Governments issue patents to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a period of time. In the United States, patents create an essential competitive advantage. However, sometimes broad language in those patents allows entities to take advantage of the system. ARRI Orbiter. Image credit: ARRI According to ARRI, the technologies in question were widely in use at the time of their supposed ‘invention’. Their legal challenges will test the validity of those patents. Patent trolls Patent law in the United States is vastly complex – or rather, it’s too complex to cover in this article. The enforcement of those laws is often described as being in the “Wild West”. Check out this clip from HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that pretty much sums it all up. Once the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues a patent to a business or an individual, they are given an open license to sue, demand royalties, and legally threaten anyone who (in their own view) infringes upon that patent. Smaller businesses often just give in to the demands because they don’t have the means to fight. We’ve seen this before in our industry. JuicedLink, the DSLR pre-amp company, shut down after a lawsuit by Zaxcom over their attempt to...
Published By: CineD - Wednesday, 15 September, 2021