Patent abusers are like cockroaches feeding on the hard work of others. Like cockroaches, they thrive in the dark, fear the light of day, and scurry away when confronted. Of course, confronting a 6-ft tall cockroach takes courage and that is where it makes sense to have a champion on your side.
I’m happy to introduce Mycroft’s latest champion, Mr. Lee Cheng. Many of you may know Lee. He is the former lead counsel of NewEgg where he built an international reputation for fighting with and defeating patent abusers. His aggressive treatment of patent abusers while at NewEgg generated fun headlines like “Wait… we sued who?! Patent troll drops case one day after Newegg’s lawyer calls” and “Newegg: The bane of patent trolls ‘existence”
“Abusive patent asserters, also known as “patent trolls” are very real. They now target small and medium-sized businesses with contingency fee lawyers looking for easy money because they believe that those businesses cannot afford to defend themselves”, Cheng said.
Lee is a very experienced litigator who regularly beats abusers in Federal Court, appeals court and made such a strong argument for common sense that the US Supreme Court sided with NewEgg and refused to hear the abuser’s ridiculous argument.
“When Voice Tech sued Mycroft, they expected a sparrow–a company that would pay a few thousand bucks to avoid the cost of litigation and allow them to create a “licensing history” that could be used to squeeze money from other small companies. What they got was an eagle–a startup whose founders are successful serial entrepreneurs who refuse to pay the Dane-geld. I am as certain as I have ever been about patent litigation that we will win this case.”
We’re privileged to have Lee on our team and are looking forward to working with him to aggressively defend our open community against abuse of the patent system. It is great to have a champion like Lee on our side.
He continued,
“It is an honor to represent clients like Mycroft, Josh Montgomery, and Michael Lewis. They are taking a principled stand on behalf of all of the companies who cannot afford to defend themselves against shameless advantage takers who offer absolutely no tangible value or benefit to anyone.”
Mycroft’s First Officer, a serial entrepreneur and Air Force Officer, Joshua brings more than 15 years of leadership experience to the Mycroft team. He is a strong supporter of the open ethos, net neutrality and consumer privacy. Joshua lives in Holualoa, Hawaii with his wife and co-founder Kris Adair.