From the Editor: Rise of the Trolls
You may have heard something about "patent trolls"—shell companies that exist only to enforce their patents and seek money from alleged infringers. But you probably thought only high-tech companies were being targeted by these guys, right?
Hardly. They're coming after printers too.
Printing Industries of America recently warned its members of an "alarming" increase in the number of printers accused by trolls of infringing patents for technologies as commonplace as prepress workflow, computer-to-plate and Web-to-print. Even scarier for IPG readers: I talked with an in-plant manager whose in-plant is being pursued by a troll for using color management software. Plain old, off-the-shelf color management software. (As if in-plants don't have a tough enough time convincing their parent organizations to keep them around.)
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
