NPE Showcase – Triumph IP

This is the latest in the series titled "NPE Showcase," where we discuss high-volume non-practicing entities (or as some call them, "patent trolls"). This installment will focus on a company named Triumph IP.

Triumph IP claims to own a patent on technology that is vital to the 802.11 WiFi protocol—specifically, a feature relating to collision detection and channel switching. This is fairly common among NPEs both large and small. The NPE will claim to own a wireless standard and then sue a company that is using the standard. The question then becomes whether the patent actually covers the standard. If it does, the defendant likely infringes because everyone uses the standard.

You might be asking how an NPE could own a patent directed to a wireless standard. Standards are created by standard setting organizations in conjunction with companies who create technology. These companies urge the standard setting organization to implement the company's technology in