Fresh off his patent win against a company called AGIS, Life360 CEO Chris Hulls has published an op-ed advising other companies on how to respond to similar patent threats.
His musings were published on TechCrunch in an article titled "I Beat a Patent Troll and You Can Too." Hulls' case got a fair bit of attention starting last year, when the lawsuit attached Hulls' letter to the plaintiffs' attorney as an exhibit. It was addressed "Dear Piece of Shit."
The first of Hulls' three suggestions is to "go nuclear," by which he means, refuse to play by the rules. Trolls and their law firms "hate being called out," he writes. "They expect that you’ll listen to your lawyers, stay quiet, and pay them to go away. We refused to let AGIS Inc. and its lawyers, Mark Hannemann and Thomas Makin of Kenyon and Kenyon LLP, hide in the background. Throughout our battle, we frequently publicized their role in this case with various influencers and media and it really got to them."Tip two: share information. Life360 has open-sourced the prior art it found on AGIS' patents—which amount to a particular way of showing people on a map and calling them. Life360 offered free legal support for any other startups AGIS might sue. Moves like that "send a strong signal that if you sue us, we will not only stick up for ourselves, but make it harder for you to sue others," wrote Hulls.
Hulls' final tip is to "go with your gut and commit to it," which for him meant taking a hard line and not settling the case. "This is about right and wrong, and that will help you sleep better at night," wrote Hulls. "Always remember you are fighting the good fight and while that may sound cheesy, but it’s really important when things get hard."
Some of his advisors suggested he settle the litigation to avoid a "costly distraction." In Hulls' opinion, that's "a very short term view" that will invite more patent attacks. He concludes:
To my fellow founders, VCs, and other members of the tech community, I beg of you, please don’t settle. Join others like Lee Cheng of NewEgg and Kevin O’Connor of Findthebest, and say no. We can make this problem go away in an instant by collectively standing up to bullies that plague us.
AGIS isn't a classic "troll," and in a post-trial interview with Ars, its founder Malcolm Beyer said he resents Hulls "dragging AGIS and me through the mud." Still, the company had never competed with Life360, although it created an Android app that actually went live during its week-long jury trial.
"Although they may not fit the exact definition of a patent troll, their behavior was eerily similar," Hulls wrote.
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