Standing Up to a Dangerous New Breed of Patent Troll
Cloudflare says that it is willing to spend up to $50,000 to award people who dig up prior art that invalidates Blackbird's patents ($20,000 for prior art related to the lawsuit and $30,000 for prior art related to Blackbird's other patents).BUT (and it's a big but, Sir Mix-a-Lot) ...> These opportunities remain open as long as Blackbird's case against Cloudflare is still active.So, what will likely happen is that as soon as Blackbird spots this blog post and realize that Cloudflare has no intention of settling, they withdraw their suit, and that means Cloudflare doesn't have to pay anybody a prior-art bounty.That would actually be in keeping with a patent troll's M.O.  They don't want to waste their time actually pursuing lawsuits against companies that are willing to push back.  Instead, it's much more lucrative for them to shake down easy targets and reach a quick settlement.