A lengthy legal battle recently concluded between Valve and serial patent troll Leigh Rothschild. It’s a classic case of “greed doesn’t pay.”
To put it briefly: in 2016, Rothschild accused Valve of infringing on several patents. At that time, the developer chose to settle with the troublemaker. Most likely, Valve obtained a "perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license" to use Rothschild’s entire patent portfolio by paying a substantial sum.
One might have thought the story ended there, but in 2022, one of Rothschild's companies informed Valve that its patent library had expanded. Subsequent proposals were made to purchase these new patents.
Given the type of license acquired earlier, Valve ignored the letters and later found that it was being sued. Specifically, the company was accused of having a device that infringed a patent related to the "sale of streamed content in a cloud environment."
This time, the creators of Steam decided not to feed the troll. In 2023, the developer company filed a counter-suit, personally accusing Rothschild of breaching the original 2016 agreement under the Patent Troll Prevention Act (PTPA).
The jury sided with Valve, and the patent troll now owes the company money. Moreover, it is Rothschild himself who must pay, rather than one of his shell companies.