General Patent Corporation
.png) | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Intellectual Property |
| Founded | 1987, Incorporated 1989 |
| Headquarters | Suffern, New York, USA |
Key people |
Alexander I. Poltorak, Chairman & CEO Michael Shanahan, Vice President & General Counsel Alec Schibanoff, Vice President of Marketing Kathlene Ingham, Director of Licensing Advisory Board of Directors Bruce Lehman Jack Granowitz |
| Products |
Patent licensing and enforcement Intellectual property consulting and advisory services Intellectual property brokerage |
| Subsidiaries |
Acticon Technologies LLC Advanced Card Technologies LLC Digital Technology Licensing LLC Leighton Technologies LLC Ryogen LLC |
| Website | www.generalpatent.com |
General Patent Corporation (GPC) is an intellectual property (IP) firm headquartered in Suffern, New York[1] that provides patent licensing and enforcement on a contingency basis. GPC also provides IP advisory services including strategy, management, patent portfolio mining, patent triage, technology transfer, and other IP-related services. According to Steven M. Cherry from the IEEE Spectrum, GPC is perhaps one of the oldest and most successful patent enforcement companies. The company remains privately held since 1987 when it was founded by Alexander Poltorak to assist inventors and IP owners in licensing and enforcing their IP rights.[1] The company was incorporated in 1989.
Since 1996, GPCI (now GPC) has been actively licensing and enforcing a portfolio of “smart connector” patents. In 1997, GPCI filed two patent infringement suits against IBM and U.S. Robotics in the Southern District of New York and Against Hayes and seven modem manufacturers in the Central District of California. In 1998 GPCI sued Motorola.[2] All defendants settled by taking a license under the patents.
In 2000, GPCI spun off the “smart connector” business into a wholly owned subsidiary, Acticon Technologies LLC.[3] To date, after winning patent reexamination proceeding at the USPTO and successfully litigating 26 patent infringement lawsuits, GPCI licensed the Acticon "smart connector" patents to more than 150 companies.[4] GPCI successfully represented Moen Technologies LLC in its litigation against The Coca-Cola Company[5] and PepsiCo;[6] Forward Technologies LLC vs. SBC Communications;[7] Scieran Technologies, Inc. vs. Bausch & Lomb;[8] Trounson Automation LLC vs. Yaskawa et al.,[9] Leighton Technologies LLC vs. Oberthur,[10] and many other patent infringement cases.
The idea incubator was spun off in 2000 as IP Holdings LLC, which later became the financial arm of GPC. In the 2007-2009 period, AT&T, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, LG, Motorola, T-Mobile, and Samsung all settled patent infringement lawsuits and agreed to license a key cellphone patent from Digital Technology Licensing LLC a subsidiary of GPC.[11]
References
- 1 2 Licensing boutiques help inventors with patent claims against big companies. (New York Times) By TERESA RIORDAN June 10, 2002
- ↑ Motorola Named in Patent Suit Filed by General Patent Corporation International.
- ↑
- ↑ General Patent is Successful in Its 20th Litigation to Enforce Acticon's Patents; General Patent Is Successful in Its 21st Litigation to Enforce Acticon’s Patents; General Patent is Successful in Its 23rd Litigation to Enforce Acticon's Patents.; General Patent is Successful in Litigation to Enforce 'Smart Connector' Patents
- ↑ Moen Technologies Settles its Patent Suit Against Coca Cola. General Patent Scores a New Victory In Its Latest Patent Enforcement Campaign; Moen Technologies Settles Its Patent Suit Against Coca Cola.
- ↑ Lycos Retriever: Search results for pepsico
- ↑ General Patent Settles with Telephone Companies On Behalf of Forward Technologies; General Patent Scores a New Victory in its Latest Patent Enforcement Campaign; Forward Technologies Settles its Patent Suit Against Pacific Bell and SBC Communications; General Patent Corporation Scores a Patent Enforcement Victory as Forward Technologies Settles Suit Against Pacific Bell and SBC Communications; General Patent Settles With Telephone Companies On Behalf Of Forward Technologies.
- ↑ Scieran Technologies Settles Law Suit with Bausch & Lomb.
- ↑ Trounson Automation Settles Lawsuit with Yaskawa Electric General Patent Corporation Represented Trounson Automation in this Transaction
- ↑ USDCData.com NYSD White Plains 7:04-cv-02496 Leighton Technologies LLC v. Oberthur Card Systems, S.A
- ↑ One-patent company snags deal with AT&T EE Times by Rick Merritt 03/11/2008