Company wrests $100k payment from patent troll but has no idea who paid

All these Graphiq employees are clearly happy because of their pioneering anti-patent troll success. (credit: Graphiq)

Lumen View Technology sued several small businesses in 2013 over a patent that described little more than online "matchmaking" before its demands for quick $50,000 payoffs ran into a Santa Barbara startup called Graphiq (formerly FindTheBest).

Graphiq CEO Kevin O'Connor, who had also co-founded online ad giant Doubleclick, pledged to spend his own money to defeat Lumen View—and defeat them he did. O'Connor's battle with the patent-holding company has finally come to an end, with the still-unknown owners of Lumen View agreeing to pay him $100,000.

"We took their patent, and we got sanctions against their lawyer," said O'Connor in an interview with Ars. "We probably spent $350,000 to get $100,000. It was worth every cent. It definitely wasn’t the best investment, but goddamn, I feel good. I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for those bastards."

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