A BUSINESS MODEL TO AVOID PATENT INFRINGEMENT:

Few days before when I was going through some patent litigation informations, I came across a futuristic business model for MNCs. Generally MNCs have some non-practicing entities (NPEs) and use these for licensing and earn royalty. Companies which are not aware of these NPEs, generally land up in patent litigation cases because of lack of databases regarding the patents of these NPEs.
PatentFreedom LLC is an on-line community of companies which share information about non-practicing entities (NPEs) that own and enforce patents primarily to collect license fees. Membership is restricted to companies that have more than $100 million in sales per year, exclusive of any income they themselves earn from patent licensing. It has 20 member companies till now and was founded in May 2008, chairman is Dan McCurdy. Earlier he was the CEO of ThinkFire, Inc., the leading intellectual property strategy and transactions firm, resigned to become Chairman of Patent Freedom LLC. Patent Freedom is a membership organization where members pay an annual dues and have access to information provided by other members about non-practicing entities who are asserting patents. It is hoped that the sharing of information will help the member companies reduce their exposure to patent infringement lawsuits.
The information includes who the entities are, who is funding them, and who they have asserted their patents against. As of December 2008, Patent Freedom database has following information:

• A database of over 220 distinct NPEs and over 800 subsidiaries, with detailed profiles and comprehensive links to important news articles on those of greatest threat.
• Information and insight on more than 16,000 patent families and applications held and enforceable by NPEs, including the product categories that an NPE might allege they infringe.
• Information and insight on over 2,200 lawsuits involving these NPEs.
• An Internet-enabled platform and email alerts for accessing this information and proactively monitoring NPEs of greatest concern.
• Access to best practices and broad-based IP expertise from a community of experts.