Ric Richardson
| Frederick "Ric" Richardson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Frederick Bailier Richardson III 1962 Sydney, Australia |
| Residence | Byron Bay, New South Wales |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Inventor, founder |
| Known for | Settling a large patent infringement case against Microsoft |
| Home town | Sydney |
| Spouse(s) | Karen Richardson |
| Children | Lily Richardson |
Ric Richardson is an Australian inventor recognised for his early invention of a form of Product activation used in anti-piracy. He is the Inventor of record for a number of U.S. patents, including the Uniloc patent US5490216 and the Logarex patent 6400293. Richardson grew up in Sydney and currently resides in Byron Bay.
He founded Uniloc to commercialise his invention and in 2003 it became a licensing company that has sought to license some of the patents he is a named inventor of, from as early as 1992. The machine fingerprinting technology is used to stop copyright infringement; it was developed as Richardson worked on his own software called One-Step and later Truetime. He is now an independent inventor, and is seeking to develop technologies including ship designs, shark warning systems and password replacement technology.
In Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., a jury awarded Uniloc US$388 million against Microsoft for their infringement of a product activation patent licensed to Uniloc. The application before the court to go to trial was originally blocked by a summary judgement for Microsoft. A jury found that Microsoft products Windows XP, Office XP, and Windows Server 2003 infringed the Uniloc patent. They found damages and found that Microsoft's conduct was willful. The presiding U.S. District Court Judge William Smith disagreed as a matter of law, overturning the jury's verdict and ruling in favour of Microsoft. This ruling was appealed, and reversed. Microsoft later settled, paying an undisclosed amount.
As a result of the publicity surrounding the case, Richardson has been the subject of two Australian Story episodes. The first called "The Big Deal" aired in August 2009 and covered the initial win of $388 million by a jury in Rhode Island. The second entitled "A Done Deal" aired in April 2012 and covered the subsequent ups and down that followed the original story culminating in the eventual settlement with Microsoft.
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