Patent Defense Play RPX Closes Series B From Index, Kleiner, And Charles River
July 22, 2009 at 20:26 PM EDT
Defense Play RPX, a defensive patent aggregator, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding led by Index Ventures with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Charles River Ventures participating. The company also raised an undisclosed Series A round of funding in September 2008 from Kleiner Perkins and and Charles River Ventures. RPX first launched in November 2008 as a way to help companies defend themselves specifically against patent trolls (organizations that buy up patent portfolios with the express intention of forcing other companies to license those patents or face a lawsuit). RPX buys up its own patents, or strikes licensing deals on behalf of its members, and the charges companies $35,000 to $4.9 million a year for perpetual licenses to those patents. The deal is that if companies pay up, any patents in RPX’s portfolio can’t be used in litigation against a member company.
