Several high-tech companies are joining together to buy intellectual property before others do in an attempt to prevent future patent infringement lawsuits against them. Verizon Communications Inc., Google Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, and Hewlett-Packard are several of the companies that have joined the group, named Allied Security Trust Co.

The group, which will require companies to pay about $250,000 to join the group, plans to buy patents that others may use to bring patent infringement claims against the companies that are members. Companies will each contribute about $5 million into escrow with the group that will go towards purchasing patents in the future.

After the companies acquire the patents, they will grant themselves nonexclusive licenses to the underlying technology, and will subsequently sell the patents. The group states it does not intend to enforce the patents to make money for the group.

The formation of Allied Security Trust comes after a rise in patent-related lawsuits since 1990: As reported by The Coalition for Patent Fairness, approximately 2,500 patent-related lawsuits were filed in the first 10 months of 2007, as compared to 921 in the 12 months of 1990.