Allied Security Trust (AST) is an independent, not-for-profit cooperative that provides its members with a method of mitigating the risk of patent assertions and litigation.
Business
Each member contribute to the operating expense of the trust, and hold funds in escrow for the purchase of patents. Each member's escrow funds are used for the purchase of only those patents that they are interested in.
The members involved in the purchase are then licensed to the patents. After a certain period of time, the patents are sold or donated. This is known as a
catch and release
Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture the fish is Fish hook, unhooked and returned live to the water. Originally adopted in the United Kingdom by Coarse fishing, coarse fishermen to Overfishing, preser ...
strategy. AST does not litigate.
Members
Allied Security Trust public members in 2023, include
* Avaya
* Adobe
* Cisco
* Dolby
* Google
* IBM
* Intel
* Meta
* Microsoft
* Oracle
* Philips
* Salesforce
* ServiceNow
* Snap
* Sony
* Spotify
* Uber
* Verizon
Executives
*Russell Binns, Jr., CEO
[{{cite web, url=http://www.alliedsecuritytrust.com, title=Homepage - Allied Security Trust, website=Allied Security Trust, accessdate=15 October 2017]
*Andrew Hopkin, CFO
*Mihir Patel, VP, Technology & Analytics
*Ray Strimaitis, VP, Corporate Development & Global Strategy
See also
*
PatentFreedom
*
Patent troll
In international law and business, patent trolling or patent hoarding is a categorical or pejorative term applied to a person or company that attempts to enforce patent rights against accused infringers far beyond the patent's actual value or ...
*
RPX Corporation
RPX Corporation (Rational Patent EXchange) is an American provider of international risk management services for patents. The company was founded in March 2008, and is based in San Francisco. It was incorporated on July 15, 2008. By acquiring pate ...
*
Open Invention Network
Open Invention Network (OIN) is an intellectual property rights company based in Durham, United States. It operates as an entity specialising in the acquisition of patents, subsequently granting royalty-free licenses to its community members. T ...
References
External links
Home pageIAM Magazine article comparing & contrasting AST with RPX, May/June 2010
Companies based in New York (state)
Defensive patent aggregation companies of the United States