As many of you might know, Nest is known for disrupting the traditional thermostat business, selling clean, modern-looking, and innovative products. It currently holds more than 200 patents in its arsenal. However, in 2012, it was sued by Honeywell, a major competitor in the thermostat industry, on the basis of patent infringement. According to Techcrunch, the suit "alleges Nest Labs infringes on several of Honeywell’s patents involving thermostats." To fight Honeywell, Nest engaged in a patent licensing deal with Intellectual Ventures (IV).
This controversial move has a number of benefits:
- It allows Nest to keep its current momentum as a fast-growth, innovative tech company.
- It augments Nest's current IP portfolio.
- It protects Nest from IV and other patent trolls from patent infringement cases.
- It protects Nest from its competitors from patent infringement cases.
The last bullet point is extremely critical, especially in the current case against Honeywell. Honeywell sued Nest, demanding that Nest cease and desist as well as pay for damages. This amounts to a huge sum of money and as Honeywell has the financial resources and time to fight Nest, Nest most likely cannot settle.
Hi Healy. You did a good job in both this blog post and in your video summarizing the case Honeywell v. Nest. Great organization at the end with the important benefits in bullet points, very informative.
ReplyDeleteHey Healy! I also read this article for my twitter post! One of the executives at Nest came to talk at one of my class and said that Nest did have patent portfolios to protect itself - which is why Google acquired it for 3.4b. Great video!
ReplyDeleteHey Healy, great post! I hadn't heard of the Honeywell v. Nest case so I learned a lot from your blog. It's interesting that Nest engaged in a patent licensing deal with IV and benefited greatly from that controversial move. Also I think you did a great job summarizing and emphasizing key points by bolding. Thanks for sharing!
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