triage

This week’s Patently Obvious report focuses on the patent holdings of 3PAR, Inc. On September 2, 2010, Hewlett-Packard weathered a bidding war with Dell Computer for 3PAR, offering $2.3 billion, or $24 a share, for the company -- almost $1.15 billion more than Dell's original offer for the company.

In the frenzy of attempting to place the winning bid, neither HP nor Dell fully considered the potential liabilities associated with owning 3PAR's intellectual property. For $2 billion, HP may have purchased the right to settle over $3 billion of new patent lawsuits.

On February 7, 2008 Network-1, a non-practicing entity, brought patent infringement charges against Cisco Systems, Inc. and seven other companies over U.S. Patent No. 6,218,930. On July 19, 2010, Network-1 announced that they had reached a settlement with Cisco, among others. Under the terms of the settlement, Cisco must make an upfront payment to Network-1 as well as royalty payments throughout the term of the '930 patent.

This report focuses on patents of interest which predate and are concurrent to Network-1's '930 patent, including public-domain alternatives.