Allied Security Trust (AST) is an independent, not-for-profit cooperative that provides its members with a method of mitigating the risk of patent assertions and litigation.
Business Each member contribute to the operating expense of the trust, and hold funds in escrow for the purchase of patents. Each member's escrow funds are used for the purchase of only those patents that they are interested in. The members involved in the purchase are then licensed to the patents. After a certain period of time, the patents are sold or donated. This is known as a catch and release strategy. AST does not litigate.
Members Allied Security Trust public members in 2023, include Avaya Adobe Cisco Dolby Google IBM Intel Meta Microsoft Oracle Philips Salesforce ServiceNow Snap Sony Spotify Uber Verizon
Executives Russell Binns, Jr., CEO Andrew Hopkin, CFO Mihir Patel, VP, Technology & Analytics Ray Strimaitis, VP, Corporate Development & Global Strategy
See also PatentFreedom Patent troll RPX Corporation Open Invention Network
References
External links Home page IAM Magazine article comparing & contrasting AST with RPX, May/June 2010