I am guessing that, even if Blackbird motions to dismiss this lawsuit, Cloudflare will nonetheless file IPRs against each of Blackbird's 37 or 38 patents for which sufficient prior art is discovered.
This appears to be more than a strategic move for this particular case on the part of Cloudflare. Cloudflare is hoping to build a reputation as 1) aggressive, 2) vindictive, and 3) successful. Believe me, other NPEs will take note and will think twice (or thrice) about suing Cloudflare out of fear of multiple defensive IPRs aimed at not only the patents in suit, but all patents utilized by the NPE in past and current litigation and licensing efforts.
The NPEs, generally, have very low risk tolerance when it comes to actions which may invalidate their money-makers. Thus, Cloudflare is hoping to get blacklisted. Just look at how successful Newegg and Rackspace have been with this strategy.
Do not mistake employment in big law for infallible expertise. I deal with exactly this on a daily basis - patent litigation, IPRs, counter IPRs, NPEs, PEs. Regardless of their background, they do not want their assets facing IPRs. IPRs introduce delays, invalidity risks, and costs.
This appears to be more than a strategic move for this particular case on the part of Cloudflare. Cloudflare is hoping to build a reputation as 1) aggressive, 2) vindictive, and 3) successful. Believe me, other NPEs will take note and will think twice (or thrice) about suing Cloudflare out of fear of multiple defensive IPRs aimed at not only the patents in suit, but all patents utilized by the NPE in past and current litigation and licensing efforts.
The NPEs, generally, have very low risk tolerance when it comes to actions which may invalidate their money-makers. Thus, Cloudflare is hoping to get blacklisted. Just look at how successful Newegg and Rackspace have been with this strategy.