Manifold being sued by Uniloc

Manifold is being sued by an alleged patent troll¹ based on some wacky patent some crazy government agency gave some Aussie 20 years ago (Isn’t that always the case?). The actual complaint is available here. You may recognize Uniloc as one of the most prolific (and successful) patent trolls around. This goofy patent seems to be the trouble. Manifold seems distracted, but this will only exacerbate their predicament. From this OCBJ article a couple months ago:

Uniloc pioneered the idea of using a 25-character product key or serial number embedded into each copy of a disk loaded with software. The key seeks to ensure there’s only one registered user per copy of the software and limit it to being loaded on a select number of devices. Uniloc’s patent only has about three years left before it comes to the end of its life. After that, Uniloc can’t sue to enforce the patent or collect royalties. “We thought the timing was right to say, ‘Well, it’s not just Microsoft,’” Davis said. “Some of the biggest companies in the world began to use it.”

Boy, best of luck everyone…

Invasion of the patent trolls!