Valve has won a historic court victory against prolific patent troll Leigh Rothschild, as a US jury has completely come down on the side of Steam in a lawsuit that relies entirely on the anti-patent troll legislation of the state of Washington.
In a verdict delivered in February, a federal jury in the Western District of Washington determined that Rothschild and his related entities violated the Washington Patent Troll Prevention Act and the state’s Consumer Protection Act, as well as violating a previous licensing agreement with Valve. This verdict came in a lawsuit filed in July 2023, in which Valve accused Rothschild’s companies of making a bad-faith patent claim against software technology that Valve was already licensed to use.
Judge Jamal Whitehead had previously found that Rothschild’s 2022 lawsuit itself violated a 2016 global settlement and license agreement, and that the later dismissal of the case did not cure the violation. The jury also issued an advisory verdict that at least one claim of the alleged US Patent No. 8,856,221 was invalid, which supported Valve’s effort to render the patent nugatory in the future.
Rothschild, whose network of shell companies has filed more than 1,000 patent lawsuits against defendants, including tech giants and small businesses, licensed a portfolio of patents to Valve in 2016 under a perpetual, royalty-free, global license. Rothschild’s shell company, Display Technologies, later sued Valve in 2022 over alleged infringement of a “displaying content” patent that was already licensed in the agreement.
Instead of quietly settling, Valve has now countersued Rothschild and various related entities in 2023 under the Washington Patent Troll Prevention Act, claiming that the infringement threats were part of an overall scheme of bad faith assertion. A jury in Seattle has now agreed, assessing approximately 152,000 USD in damages to Valve, an important legal precedent against the business model of patent trolls.
The case shows that anti-troll laws can be used offensively as well as defensively.