Axis / Avigilon Legal Battle Rises

The only real winners here are the lawyers.  They will make millions off the months of ongoing patent debate.  I am interested to see how this turns out though, I know Canon/Axis holds a staggering amount of IP Video and Camera Patents, it will be interesting to see how many of these come out in the next couple of months.

Impressive research, Team!

With Canon's over 250k patents in ENG (electronic news gathering) and Sensor technology - there is no way that Motorola extends this beyond some quick form of remediation. Canon has a war chest that could make the entire industry shake in fear - I don't believe that Avigilon OR their parent has the capacity / depth / wherewithal or patience to stave off the counter-attacks of Canon. This too will go away and some form of detente will ensue between the parties. That said, I do think that some form of intellectual protection with fair-use should be considered. OV was a troll - in the truest form of the word - seeking compensation on "thought" and not "action".  I believe some mediation that allows for simple, fair-use of technology and remuneration is needed. Keeping this out of the courts and regulated (reasonably) allows for innovation and stimulates the market to enhance technology and generate new ideas. Ownership of ideas is a hard concept to enforce and, at best, difficult to define. 

I hope that this can be settled and done without a continued, protracted legal battle which will stifle innovation and ensure barriers to free movement of ideas. 

So - sorry for the ramble. Just some random thoughts.

You could of-course have had a voting option for "no one wins". In the same way as the Trump trade tariff's are collectively damaging - the patent war will have no winner as both companies will be damaged to a greater or lesser extent.

The lawyers are the only winners - they encourage confrontation and aggression to line their pockets without an ounce of integrity.

It's an interesting middle ground war and demonstrates clearly where each sees their rival. I'm of the opinion that Canon will fight to the end and Avigilon will be mortally damaged, regretting the day it embarked on the foolhardy venture. the American psyche to sue at a drop of hat, rather than engage will be Avigilon's undoing.

For years we have under-estimated Canons trade ambitions. They surprised many with the Milestone and Axis acquisitions and have perhaps done so again by taking on Avigilon. This is a battle they can not afford to lose (at any cost) so they won't.

Motorola are only supporting the action as they are new to the party and being led by Avigilon - for now. But with a bloodied nose, we'll see a decapitation of the Avigilon senior management team as Motorola get to grips with the spoiled brat it has taken on. Greg Brown was sold the opportunity of buying Avigilon, on the basis of challenges that Hikvision would be facing and a potential opportunity (quoted from Bloomberg) - whilst not understanding that Canon had already identified this and are far better placed and seasoned to rise to the challenge.

We see the description of Axis vs. Avigilon, but this is just a charade for the Canon vs. Motorola challenge. Strangely, as Motorola have suggested that they see Hikvision as their threat and challenge - they have, stupidly, embarked on a feud between themselves and Canon that will only help Hikvision in the long term.

Only time will tell.....

Correction: an earlier version said there were 10 IPRs for Axis as a patent owner. That is wrong. There are none. The error was using 'Axis' vs 'Axis Communications' for the search term.

There should be another poll for who do you want to win...

Heaven forbid Motorola would ever stoop so low as to copy, forge, steal or otherwise acquire a better solution for when their own ideas ran out - how could anyone ever believe that a US corporate giant would ever stoop so low....to produce the (quote) "most shameless rip yet".

Just sayin'...….

When do these patents expire? Maybe then we'll have a flurry of successful Video Analytics innovation.