Cloudflare, sued by its first “patent troll,” hits back hard

Matthew Prince, cofounder and chief executive officer of CloudFlare Inc. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Cloudflare, the Internet security company and content delivery network, was founded more than seven years ago but miraculously hadn't ever been hit with a patent infringement lawsuit from a non-practicing entity (commonly referred to as a "patent troll") until this March.

Rather than pay a nuisance settlement, Cloudflare is going all-out to fight Blackbird Technologies LLC, a company founded by two former big-firm lawyers that has amassed dozens of patents and filed more than 100 lawsuits. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince says Blackbird is a classic "patent troll," albeit one with a new, and potentially dangerous, twist on its business model.

In addition to filing its responsive papers in court today, Cloudflare also has sent letters to state bar regulatory committees in Massachusetts and Illinois, asking them to investigate Blackbird further.

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