Rightscorp Profile
Rightscorp, Inc. operates as a technology company that has a patent-pending proprietary method for collecting payments from illegal downloaders of copyrighted content through notifications sent to their Internet service providers (ISPs).
The company protects copyright holders’ rights by seeking to assure they get paid for their copyrighted IP. It offers and sells a service to copyright owners under which copyright owners retain the company to identify infringements and collect settlement payments from Internet users who have infringed on their copyrights.
After the company receives an order from a client, its software monitors the global peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks to detect illegally distributed digital media. The technology sends automated notices of the infringing activity to ISPs and the ISP forwards these notices, which contain settlement offers, to their infringing customers. The company has developed a technology that it sells as a service to copyright owners to collect settlement payments from consumers who have illegally downloaded copyrighted content.
Strategy
Key elements of the company's strategy include adding more copyrights; increasing the number of ISPs who acknowledge its notices; increasing the number of notices that each ISP confirms and forwards; compelling the ISP to improve ‘throughput’ processes; increasing response rates (the number of subscribers who have received notices and agree to settle); sending non-compliant ISPs weekly termination demands to terminate service to non-responding repeat infringers pursuant to 17 USC 512 (i); giving copyright holders who wish to litigate the highest quality litigation support data that includes the history of the subscriber’s ISP being sent notices while they continue to violate copyright law; and protecting its client’s copyrights outside the U.S. from P2P infringement.
Customers
For the year ended December 31, 2016, the company’s contract with Recording Industry Association of America accounted for approximately 44% of its sales, and its contract with BMG Rights Management (US) LLC accounted for 23% of its sales. Its customers also include Shapiro/Bernstein and The Orchard. As of December 31, 2016, the company closed infringements and received settlement payments from subscribers on approximately 233 ISPs, including the U.S. ISPs, such as Comcast, Charter, CenturyLink, Mediacom and Suddenlink.
Intellectual Property
The company has 2 patents granted in Australia and Israel and 26 patent applications pending worldwide for its proprietary system of detecting and seeking settlement payments for repeat copyright infringers. The patent applications were filed between May 9, 2011 and January 12, 2016. The 26 patent applications include 5 U.S. patent applications, with each such patent application’s respective status before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office; and 21 patent applications in countries, such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Israel, Japan, and the European Union. The 5 U.S. patent applications include patent applications 13/485,178, 14/945,551, 13/594,596 and 14/993,902, which contain the methods for identifying repeat infringers. In addition, the 5 U.S. patent applications include the U.S. Patent application 13/103,795, which includes methods for using P2P infringement data to sell legitimate products to infringers. The Australian patent no. 2012236069 and Israeli patent no. 229661 also contain a method for identifying repeat infringers. The Australian patent expires on April 2, 2032, and the Israeli patent expires on May 31, 2032.
