There are many start-ups and interesting companies appearing in the edge computing space, and not all have published patent documents. This may reflect a greater trend in the industry of companies forming partnerships to bring their edge products to market, rather than offering a complete solution. Some examples are below.
iExec: iExec is a French startup founded in 2016 that offers a blockchain based, fully distributed cloud computing platform. iExec leverages etherum smart contracts to offer a peer-to-peer computing platform where individuals can buy and sell computing resources. They have no published patent documents.
Packet: Packet is the leading bare metal automation platform for developers. Founded in 2014, Packet has partnered with Vapor IO to bring bare metal cloud services to the edge. Packet has no published patent documents.
Edgeworx: Edgeworx is a software company providing an open source universal edge computing platform. Their software, ioFog, is designed to work at the infrastructure layer for devices such as cameras and can interface with legacy systems. The company does not have any published patent documents; however, they have noted that their software links various nodes using a proprietary mesh. Edgeworx is also a member of the Eclipse Foundation.
MetroEDGE: MetroEDGE is a young data center company building micro data centers in urban areas, specifically focusing on underserved metro areas. They design custom solutions for their clients of varying sizes, including data storage and security. The company also has a training partnership with Kennedy-King College in Chicago and does not have any published patent documents. They have established partnerships with Dragonchain and ClearSky Data.
Clouding Corp: Clouding Corp, a subsidiary of Marathon Patent Group, has an IP portfolio consisting of 96 US and international patents and pending applications including 47 U.S. patents. With patents in the area of cloud-based infrastructure and pay-per-use provisioning, Clouding Corp poses a potential threat for patent infringement liability. According to one analysis, Marathon Patent Group is the second largest patent assertion entity in cloud-related patent litigation over the past five years. Clouding Corp/Clouding IP was the plaintiff in 15% of all cloud-related patent litigation, and has filed cases for patent infringement against major cloud players Dell EMC, AT&T, Verizon, Amazon, VMware, Citrix Systems, and DropBox.
