Google, Facebook Facing Patent Infringement Lawsuit Over Social Networking on Mobile Phones

March 11, 2010 - A company called Wireless Ink has filed a patent lawsuit against Google and Facebook, claiming that the technology the defendants use to allow users to join social networks via their mobile phones infringes the company's patent, which was issued in October 2009.

Bloomberg News reports that Wireless Ink is seeking cash for damages and an injunction on the allegedly infringing technology.

TiVo Wins Victory in Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Dish Network, EchoStar

March 5, 2010 - TiVo has won its patent infringement case against Dish Network and EchoStar, after a federal appeals court affirmed a previous finding of contempt against Dish and Echostar. That ruling stemmed from the defendants' violation of a court-ordered permanent injunction on making and selling their digital video recorder (DVR) products.

TiVo is expected to receive about $300 million in damages and contempt sanctions, and the company plans to seek additional damages and contempt sanctions for infringement occurring after July 1, 2009.

Dish and EchoStar plan to seek an en banc review by the full Federal Circuit, as well as a new design-around on the infringing technology.

Amazon Takes License from Microsoft for Using Linux

February 23, 2010 - Microsoft, which has long maintained that Linux violates various patents belonging to the software giant, announced that it has entered into a licensing deal with Amazon.

According to CNET News, "The deal covers both Amazon's Kindle product as well as the company's use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft has maintained that many implementations of Linux infringe on its patents and has signed numerous licensing deals that cover Linux with both companies that sell Linux-based software and those that use the operating system in their hardware."

The deal amounts to a license for Amazon to use Linux - not a Microsoft product - and is a clear sign of Amazon "playing it safe" in case the Microsoft vs. FOSS (free and open source software) battle ever makes it to court. The amount of money involved in the deal was not publicly disclosed.

Apple, Microsoft Sued for Patent Infringement by Emblaze

February 15, 2010 - Emblaze, a company that owns a patent on a method of "generating media packets," has sued Apple and Microsoft for patent infringement.

The plaintiff claims that the patent is infringed by Apple's HTTP Live Streaming Application, used in the iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and Mac OS X; and Microsoft's IIS Smooth Streaming, which is used in Silverlight.

CNet News reports that Microsoft has until March 15 to reply.

GE Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Mitsubishi Over Wind-Turbine Patents

February 12, 2010 - General Electric Co., which has 148 issued U.S. patents related to wind energy, has sued Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. for patent infringement of two of those patents.

One of the patents-in-suit relates to the base frame that supports the rotor's weight, and the other concerns a way of keeping the turbine connected to the electricity grid even when the voltage drops.

The suit was filed in the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

UK Ruling for RIM Against Motorola Has Implications for Patent Infringement Complaint Pending at ITC

February 8, 2010 - A UK judge has rejected patent infringement claims Motorola made against Research in Motion (RIM). Not only did Justice Richard Arnold of London's High Court rule that the patent was not infringed, he also ruled that it was invalid.

The patent in question relates to an email gateway system, and the complaint that Motorola filed against RIM in the US International Trade Commission (ITC) is still outstanding.

Although the ITC case involves more than one patent, the UK ruling may have a negative effect on the outcome at the ITC, where Motorola has requested a ban on imports of Blackberry products into the US.

Acacia Prevails Over Yahoo in Patent Infringement Lawsuit; Awarded $12.4M

February 3, 2010 - Acacia Research Corp.'s subsidiary, Creative Internet Advertising Group, received a $12.4 million judgment stemming from a May 2009 trial verdict in the company's patent lawsuit against Yahoo Inc.

A jury in the Eastern District of Texas found that Yahoo's messenger infringes one of Acacia's patents.

Apple Faces Competition for the "iPad" Trademark from Fujitsu

January 31, 2010 - Taking a brief break from patent infringement news, we turn to a trademark matter. Now that Apple's tablet PC has finally been introduced to the public, a host of other products named "iPad" - including tablet computers from ST Microelectronics and Fujitsu, motors and engines produced by Siemens and even a padded bra from a Canadian lingerie company.

The biggest challenge to Apple's trademark comes from Fujitsu, however, which produced a handheld computing device in 2002 with the iPad name. But to complicate matters, according to this PC World article, the United States Patent and Trademark Office declared in early 2009 that Fujitsu had abandoned the iPad trademark. In June, however, Fujitsu decided that it wanted the trademark back.

This article from the New York Times details the legal fight between Fujitsu and Apple. It will be interesting to see which side prevails - and if any more "iPads" come out of the woodwork.

ITC Judge Rules that Nvidia Infringed Three Rambus Patents

January 27, 2010 - It's been a good month for Rambus. Following the company's settlement with Samsung, A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has now ruled in Rambus' favor against Nvidia.

Cnet News reported on January 22 that the ITC judge found that Nvidia infringed three Rambus patents, but cleared Nvidia of infringement of two other patents, which were examined and found to be invalid. The patents in suit relate to memory controllers.

David Shannon, Nvidia's executive vice president and general counsel, expressed confidence that the remaining Rambus patents would be found invalid in re-examination proceedings in the Patent and Trademark Office.

"We will now take the patents before the full commission for a final decision on whether any of these patents are valid, enforceable, and infringed," said Shannon.

Samsung Electronics Settles Patent Infringement Litigation with Rambus; Will Pay $200 Million

January 21, 2010 - Samsung Electronics Co. and Rambus, Inc. have settled all patent litigation between the two companies.

The patents under which Samsung will be taking a license cover all of Samsung's semiconductor products.

Under the terms of the agreement, Samsung will pay $200 million to Rambus, plus buy $200 million of Rambus' shares and make $25 million quarterly royalty payments to the memory-chip designer for the next five years under a patent license.

But that's not all: the two companies will also collaborate on a new generation of memory technologies, beginning with graphics and mobile memory chips and possibly moving on to server and high-speed NAND flash-memory chips used in MP3 players and digital cameras.

Alcatel Patent Trust Sues Disney, Fox and NBC in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

January 21, 2010 - Multimedia Patent Trust, of which Alcatel-Lucent SA is a 99 percent beneficiary, has sued Walt Disney Co., Fox and NBC Universal Inc. for infringing its patents on video compression technology in DVD and Blu-Ray discs sold by the media companies.

The suit was filed in federal court in San Diego, Calif.

Apple Files Trade Complaint with ITC Against Nokia

January 18, 2010 - Previously in the smartphone war between Nokia and Apple, Nokia had filed a complaint in December with the International Trade Commission (ITC) which sought to ban the importation of Apple's iPhone, iPod and MacBook products.

Now Apple has followed suit by filing its own complaint with the ITC, seeking to block imports of Nokia's mobile phones.

Though the ITC has not yet agreed to investigate Nokia's complaint, filed December 29, Bloomberg News reports that the ITC "typically grants such requests."

Motorola and VTech Settle Patent Infringement Litigation

January 18, 2010 - Motorola Inc. and VTech Communications, Inc. announced that they have settled a patent lawsuit that Motorola filed against VTech in the Eastern District of Texas.

The six patents in suit related to cordless telephone technology. VTech is primarily known as a supplier of corded and cordless phones and electronic learning toys.

The terms of the settlement are confidential.

Kodak and Samsung Settle Patent Infringement Litigation

January 12, 2010 - Eastman Kodak Co. announced yesterday that they have signed a patent licensing agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.

The settlement ends 14 months of patent infringement lawsuits that the companies had filed against each other, as well as patent infringement proceedings before the International Trade Commission.

Kodak's 2008 lawsuit against Samsung alleged that camera phones imported by Samsung violated some of Kodak's many patents. With over 1,000 patents on digital imaging technology, almost all of today's digital cameras use some aspect of Kodak's patented technology.

Samsung filed a patent infringement complaint of its own with the ITC in February 2009, claiming that Kodak's digital cameras infringed some of its patents. However, a trade commission judge ruled Dec. 17 that Samsung had infringed two Kodak patents. That jumpstarted negotiations between the two companies, and they reached a cross-licensing agreement in December.

Microsoft in Patent Infringement Lawsuit over Bing Maps

January 7, 2010 - Skyline Software Systems Inc., a Virginia company, has sued Microsoft for patent infringement, claiming that Microsoft's Bing mapping program is infringing its patented technology.

Skyline's patent, which issued in June 2009, relates to a way of sending 3D images over the Internet.

Microsoft's Bing is designed to compete with the very popular Google Maps, as Microsoft attempts to become more competitive in the search engine field. And Google itself has had a brush with Skyline over a different patent, though a federal judge in Boston ruled that there was no infringement.

Skyline makes terrain-visualization software that shows land masses in 3D on computers and handheld devices. Mostly used by government agencies, the software was used in the Sichuan province of China after the May 2008 earthquake to help with the relief effort.

Nokia Files Latest Complaint against Apple in Patent Infringement Lawsuit War

January 5, 2010 - In October, Nokia filed a patent infringement lawsuit in federal court in Delaware, charging that Apple's iPhone infringes 10 Nokia patents. In December, Nokia filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC), requesting a ban on certain Apple devices.

Now Nokia has asked a federal court to ban the importation of almost all Apple hardware into the United States: iPhone, iPod and Mac products.

Nokia claims that Apple is infringing seven of its patents related to user interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies.

Apple has not taken the litigation lying down. On December 12, Apple filed a lawsuit of its own against Nokia, alleging infringement of 13 of its patents.

Acacia Research Corp. Division Loses Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Verizon Wireless and Other Carriers

December 24, 2009 - Last week, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that Verizon Wireless and other wireless carriers did not infringe the patent of DNT LLC, a unit of Acacia Research Corp.

The patent was filed in 1990 and relates to automatic dialing - specifically, an improved auto-dialer for touchtone phones. In this lawsuit, the patented technology was allegedly infringed by the way wireless modem cards access the carriers' networks.

The jury also found that the patent was invalid for three reasons: it lacked an adequate written description of the claimed invention, it was not enabling, and it would have been obvious as of the date of the patent application's filing.

Florida Company Found Guilty in Trademark Registration Scam

December 23, 2009 - A judge in Tallahassee, Florida ruled on December 18 that a company called the Federated Institute for Patent and Trademark Registry and its president, Bernd Taubert, violated the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by sending out direct mail pieces that looked like invoices for trademark registration.

The 1,000 or so victims of the scam had all filed legitimate patent or trademark applications, and believed the mailings were in connection with those filings. But when they sent a check to Federated, it was mostly diverted to Swiss bank accounts - with no goods or services in return.

Federated and Taubert pocketed around $2.6 million from the scam, whose victims included big names like Crocs and Sony Entertainment. The estate of Astrid Lundgren, the author of the "Pippi Longstocking" books, was another victim - to the tune of $25,000.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is seeking full restitution for all victims, plus penalties and an order for the assets in the Swiss bank accounts to be returned to the U.S.

CAFC Bans Sales of Word Following Microsoft Appeal

December 22, 2009 - The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), which hears appeals in patent cases, has upheld the ruling of a lower court that placed a ban on sales of Microsoft's Word program and set the injunction to begin on January 11.

In August, a Texas jury found that Microsoft Word contains code that infringes a patent belonging to Canadian firm i4i Inc. In addition to an injunction against sales of Word, Microsoft was also ordered to pay i4i past damages in the amount of $290 million.

The ban does not affect copies of Word and Office sold before the January 11 deadline, and copies of the software sold after that date will not include the patented code.

Starbucks vs. "Charbucks" in Trademark Infringement Lawsuit

December 15, 2009 - Starbucks Corp. has sued the Black Bear Micro Roastery in Tuftonbury, New Hampshire, for diluting its trademark. At issue is the family-owned company's "Charbucks" coffee blend. The name of the blend is an obvious play on "Starbucks" that also highlights the dark-roasted characteristic of the coffee.

Starbucks' spokeswoman May Kulthol, quoted in a Bloomberg News story on the lawsuit, said, "Black Bear did not choose the term 'Charbucks' by accident, but with Starbucks in mind...We always prefer to resolve trademark disputes informally and amicably whenever possible."

Black Bear's attorney, Christopher Cole, says Starbucks has not proved that there has been any "blurring" of the Starbucks mark, and that the Charbucks and Mister Charbucks blends have been available in New England and online for many years.

Apple Files Countersuit against Nokia Alleging Patent Infringement

December 15, 2009 - In October, Nokia filed suit against Apple, alleging that the iPhone makes use of Nokia's GSM/UTMS patents - ten patents that relate to 2G and 3G wireless connections, as well as WiFi used in mobile phones.

Now Apple has filed a countersuit. In the complaint, Nokia is sharply accused of infringing thirteen patents and "playing copycat": "Nokia has demonstrated its willingness to copy Apple's iPhone ideas as well as Apple's basic computing technologies, all while demanding Apple pay for access to Nokia's purported standards essential patent."

Furthermore, Apple claims that the ten Nokia patents in the original suit are not actually essential to GSM/UTMS, that those patents aren't infringed, and what's more, they're invalid and/or unenforceable anyway.

Interestingly, Nokia's patent infringement lawsuit is mostly concerned with the licensing terms the company feels Apple owes, and not so much about actual patent infringement or gaining a permanent injunction against Apple.

Apple Ordered to Pay $21.7 Million in Patent Infringement Lawsuit Judgment

December 9, 2009 - Last week it was reported that the judgment has been finalized in the lawsuit between Apple and OPTi Inc. In April of this year, a jury found in OPTi's favor and Apple was ordered to pay $19 million.

Now that the judgment has been finalized, Apple has been ordered to pay an additional $2.7 million in pre-judgment interest.

The patent-at-suit was U.S. Patent No. 6,405,291, entitled "Predictive Snooping of Cache Memory for Master-Initiated Accesses".

Ford Ordered to Pay Inventor $55 Million in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

November 29, 2009 - Jacob Krippelz, of Aurora, Illinois, invented and patented a sideview mirror light in the early 1990s and attempted to license it to Ford and Mercedes, which both turned him down. In 1997, Krippelz discovered that Ford had used his invention anyway - without paying a dime in royalties.

Over 11 years later, a jury and judge in federal court have ruled in Krippelz's favor, awarding the inventor $44 million in initial damages and another $11 million in interest since Ford's first act of infringement.

Krippelz, along with his sons Joseph and Jacob Jr., operate Jake's Inc., a machining and heavy equipment component manufacturing company in Aurora, Illinois that also has a plant in Mexico.

The language in U.S. District Judge James Zagel's 33-page ruling seemed to anticipate and deflect criticism of the small inventor as a "patent troll" - an inventor who patents an invention without intending to practice it, but instead licenses it to others.

"The sending of the patent made good sense for Krippelz," wrote Judge Zagel. "He was not in a position to put his invention into commerce; he did not make automobiles or their parts. His market was automakers, and their suppliers. It is quite reasonable that he would send his patent, once issued, to an automaker, and that is what he did."

(For commentary on the Jacob Krippelz, Sr. v. Ford Motor Company lawsuit, see our blog post on the case.)

Accenture Files Patent Suit Against Guidewire Software

November 27, 2009 - Accenture has filed suit against its competitor Guidewire Software, alleging that Guidewire's Insurance Suite and ClaimCenter software products infringe one of its patents.

Accenture claims that the Guidewire products have "no substantial non-infringing use," but at least one Guidewire executive said that the patent not only is not infringed by his company, but should have never been issued in the first place.

“Accenture is resorting to litigation to compete,” Brian Desmond, vice president of marketing for Guidewire, told Reuters. “They have been left behind by the marketplace.”

Guidewire has asked the Patent Office to "review the matter."

Apple Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Over Knockoff AC Adaptors

November 25, 2009 - Apple, no stranger to patent lawsuits, is on the plaintiff side of the case this time. Apple has sued a company called Media Solutions Holdings for infringing the company's patent on power adaptors for Apple laptops, such as the MacBook.

The Media Solutions adaptors are alleged to infringe an Apple patent called "Power Adaptor."

Intel Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with AMD for $1.25 Billion

November 15, 2009 - Following years of antitrust and patent disputes, Intel Corp. has agreed to pay Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) $1.25 billion.

Under the deal, AMD will withdraw its antitrust complaints against Intel in Europe, the U.S., Japan and South Korea. But the European Union has already issued a ruling that ordered Intel to pay a $1.45 billion fine for "anticompetitive behavior." And in the U.S., there is speculation that the Federal Trade Commission may be close to filing their own case against Intel.

Meanwhile, though Intel still controls about 80% of the microprocessor market, its competitor AMD will get a welcome boost from the settlement money - and from the "oversight provisions that will make it difficult for Intel to violate," according to AMD exec Thomas McCoy.

Motorola Settles with Aruba in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

November 9, 2009 - Motorola prevailed in its patent dispute against WLAN vendor Aruba Networks, who agreed to a one-time payment of $19.8 million to Motorola and its subsidiaries, Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications.

Motorola and its subsidiaries filed suit against Aruba in August 2007 over technology related to wireless computer networks. Aruba filed a countersuit a year later, and on Friday, November 6, the parties announced that they had settled all outstanding disputes out of court and reached a cross-licensing agreement.

Google Hit with New Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed by Israeli Company

November 2, 2009 - Red Bend, a company based in Israel, has filed suit against Google in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Red Bend alleges that Google's Chrome browser, specifically the Courgette method Google uses for shrinking updates to reduce bandwidth requirements, infringes its patents on a compression algorithm.

As Chrome and the Courgette update system are both open source, the lawsuit also accuses Google of publishing and distributing the source code for the technology.

Red Bend has offices in Waltham, Massachusetts, and develops software management products for mobile telephony.

Nokia Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Apple

October 26, 2009 - On October 22, mobile phone giant Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the iPhone infringes 10 of Nokia's patents.

The patents cover technologies related to wireless data, security, speech coding and encryption.

Apple has shipped over 34 million iPhones to date, so the company could end up paying Nokia anywhere from $200 million to $1 billion in a settlement, according to some analysts in the IT / smartphone business.

Apple, Dell, HP and Others Sued for Infringing 3Com's '90s Ethernet Patents

October 21, 2009 - A Texas-based company called U.S. Ethernet Innovations has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against several computer manufacturers, alleging infringement of a patent entitled "Network Interface with Host Independent Buffer Management." The patent is No. 5,299,313 and was issued in 1994 to 3Com.

The link between 3Com and the complainant wasn't immediately clear, but it appears that the company had purchased the patents from 3Com.

U.S. Ethernet Innovations alleges that the Apple MacBook Pro infringes the '313 patent, as do Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Toshiba.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas in early October.

Eolas Technologies Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against 23 Companies

October 11, 2009 - It was announced last week that Eolas Technologies, a technology research firm, had filed suit against several major companies, including Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, eBay, Amazon.com and more.

Eolas claims the defendants are infringing two of their patents: one for allowing embedded applications in Web browsers, and the second a continuation of the first and relating to the use of plug-ins and AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML).

The patent survived a lawsuit against Microsoft that lasted for years and ended in a settlement for an undisclosed amount.

Prolific Patent Holder Ronald A. Katz Settles with UPS

October 7, 2009 - United Parcel Service, Inc. and Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. announced that they have settled the lawsuit Katz's company filed in 2007 over Katz Technology's patents related to interactive voice applications.

Katz has a portfolio of over 50 patents with thousands of patent claims, all related to various aspects of telephonic interactive voice applications. His company has filed more than 100 lawsuits against major companies, and many have settled - including American Express, Bank of America, IBM, Merck, Microsoft, Wachovia and now UPS.

UPS has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for a nonexclusive license for Katz Technology's patents related to interactive voice applications used in UPS' Travel and Transportation services. Other terms of the license were not disclosed.

Sprint Nextel Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with Small Local Phone Company

October 5, 2009 - Telecom giant Sprint Nextel Corp. has settled a patent infringement lawsuit it filed against Big River Telephone Co., a small phone company based in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Sprint sued Big River and three other companies in January 2008 over the infringement of Sprint's patents for sending telephone calls over the Internet.

Financial terms of the settlement between Sprint and Big River are confidential, but Sprint said Big River agreed to pay for a non-exclusive license to use the patents-in-suit.

District Judge Overturns Uniloc's $388M Award in Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Microsoft

September 30, 2009 - Judge William Smith of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island has issued a judgment overturning an April 2009 jury verdict that hit Microsoft with one of the largest patent awards on record: $388 million. The decision comes as Microsoft awaits the outcome of its litigation with i4i, which could potentially cost Microsoft $290 million and ban the sales of some Word products.

In a patent lawsuit that has been going for six years, California-based Uniloc USA and its parent company (based in Singapore) first sued Microsoft in September 2003. At issue was whether Microsoft's use of a software activation key to prevent users from installing licensed software on multiple computers infringed Uniloc's patent, No. 5,490,216, "System for Software Registration."

In April 2009, a jury found that Microsoft willfully infringed Uniloc's patent. Microsoft was ordered to pay $388 million in damages to Uniloc, but this new ruling has overturned that verdict.

Uniloc CEO Brad Davis said in a statement that the company plans to appeal Judge Smith's decision.

Western Union Wins $16.5 Million in Patent Infringement Lawsuit with MoneyGram

September 29, 2009 - A jury in the Western District of Texas has awarded the Western Union Company $16.53 million in its patent infringement lawsuit against MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc.

Western Union sued MoneyGram in May 2007, claiming that MoneyGram's "FormFree" system infringed Western Union's patented "Money Transfer by Phone" service.

MoneyGram had argued that no reasonable jury could find infringement, and even cited testimony from a Western Union technical expert that the systems were sufficiently different.

"We firmly believe that the case is without merit," said MoneyGram spokeswoman Lynda Michielutti, "and we believe we have a solid basis for appeal."

Facebook Sued for Infringement of Social Networking Patent

September 23, 2009 - Social networking giant Facebook has been sued in federal court in Delaware for infringement of a patent owned by software manufacturer WhoGlue. WhoGlue sells web-based relationship management software used by groups such as alumni organizations.

The two-year-old patent-in-suit covers an "information management system, method and computer program code and means for facilitating communications between user members of an online network." The infringement is thought to be related to the privacy controls Facebook has put in place over the last couple of years to allow users more control over who sees which posts.

In Appeals Court, Microsoft Scores Delay of Injunction on Word Sales

September 7, 2009 - In a hearing on Friday, September 4, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) approved Microsoft's request to put the injunction against sales of its Word software on hold.

At issue in the suit is i4i's patented technology related to the use of XML (extensible markup language) as a way of encoding data for use in exchanging information between different programs.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas had ordered the injunction as part of its judgment against Microsoft in the patent infringement lawsuit filed against the software giant by Canadian company i4i. I4i LP v. Microsoft Corp., 07cv113, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas (Tyler).

The CAFC noted that, in allowing the injunction to be delayed, it was acting “without prejudicing the ultimate determination of this case.”

DISH Network, EchoStar Ordered to Pay Another $200M to TiVo in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

September 7, 2009 - On September 4, it was announced that the US District Court, Eastern District of Texas ordered DISH and EchoStar to pay an additional $200M to TiVo as a result of what TiVo called "contempt sanction for continued violation of a Court-ordered permanent injunction."

In June 2009, the same court found EchoStar in contempt of court and ordered EchoStar to pay $103M plus interest, in addition to an existing $104M award, to TiVo. The suit began when TiVo sued EchoStar and DISH in 2004 for patent infringement related to digital video recording.

SAP Ordered to Pay Versata $138.6M in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

September 1, 2009 - Enterprise software provider SAP has been ordered by a federal court to pay $138.6 million to Versata Software, a Texas-based company.

SAP's Business Suite products and other services was found to have infringed 5 Versata patents related to methods for configuring systems, pricing products in multi-level product and organizational groups, and multi-source transaction processing.

Amazon Prevails in Patent Infringement Lawsuit with Cordance over Three "One-Click Shopping" Patents

August 23, 2009 - A patent infringement suit that Cordance Corp. filed against Amazon.com Inc. in 2006 ended on August 18, 2009 when a jury in Wilmington, Delaware decided that Amazon didn't infringe two of the patents and that the third patent is invalid.

The suit filed by Cordance, a software company based in Sammamish, Washington, contended that Amazon was misusing Cordance's patented technology for one-click shopping and customer feedback procedures.

Amazon attorney Lynn H. Pasahow told jurors during the trial that one of the patents wasn’t infringed because Amazon uses one-click ordering, while Cordance's patent covers an e-shopping system involving two clicks.

Cordance's general counsel, Brian E. Lewis, said in an email to Bloomberg News that the company is "carefully considering an appeal."

The case is Cordance Corp. v. Amazon.com Inc., 06CV491, US District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington). The patents-at-suit were 6,757,710; 6,088,717; and 5,862,325.

Microsoft Granted Expedited Hearing in i4i Patent Infringement Lawsuit

August 23, 2009 - After filing a motion on August 18 to stay the injunction on its sales of Word - the result of a patent infringement lawsuit with i4i - Microsoft received a court date for its appeal. A three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) will hear Microsoft's appeal beginning on September 23.

Microsoft has until August 25 to file a briefing with its main arguments, said Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz. i4i will then be allowed to respond, and Microsoft will have the chance to file its own response to i4i before oral arguments begin.

The injunction, if allowed to stand, would take effect on October 10.

Besides the injunction on selling Word in its current form, the ruling by Judge Leonard Davis of the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas also awarded the plaintiff, i4i Inc. or Toronto, more than $290 million in damages.

Microsoft Files Emergency Motion to Stop Ban on Word Sales

August 19, 2009 - Several days after a federal judge in Texas handed down a ruling that would ban the sale of Microsoft Word within 60 days, Microsoft filed an emergency motion on August 14 in an attempt to stop the ban.

The actual document was filed under seal and has not been made public.

Judge Leonard Davis had found Microsoft liable for infringement of Canadian company i4i's patent related to "manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations." Microsoft was ordered to pay $290 million.

Texas Judge Files Injunction Barring Microsoft from Selling Word

August 12, 2009 - Judge Leonard Davis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ordered a permanent injunction yesterday that, if it stands, will prohibit Microsoft from selling Word within the next 60 days. Microsoft has also been ordered to pay more than $290 million to the patent owner, Canadian firm i4i.

Judge Davis issued the injunction following a jury trial earlier this year that found that Microsoft had infringed i4i's patent, which relates to the use of XML documents. XML is an intrinsic part of the Microsoft Word software program, and allows formatting of text and makes files readable in different programs.

Interviewed in E-Commerce Times, GPC's Chairman and CEO Alex Poltorak spoke of the injunction against Microsoft as a "good day for inventors."

Microsoft said in a statement that it will appeal the injunction.

"We are disappointed by the court's ruling," said Microsoft spokesperson Kevin Kutz. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict."

TechRadium Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with Blackboard

August 12, 2009 - TechRadium, the Texas-based company that is also suing Twitter for patent infringement of its mass notification technology, has settled its patent lawsuit against educational software company Blackboard.

Financial terms of the agreement were undisclosed, but TechRadium said the two firms agreed to cross-license several patents and patent applications so that each company can continue providing mass notification services to clients.

Pharma Firm BTG Files Patent Infringement Complaint with ITC against Apple, Dell and Others

August 11, 2009 - Pharmaceutical company BTG PLC filed a patent infringement complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in late July, seeking to block US imports of several electronics products that it claims infringe its patents related to increasing the storage on Flash memory chips.

Though BTG is focused solely on pharmaceuticals, the company was founded after World War II as a state-funded corporation which commercialized research from British universities.

Some of the companies named in the complaint were Dell, Apple and Research in Motion (maker of the Blackberry), all of which use Samsung's Nand memory chips.

Twitter Hit with Patent Infringement Lawsuit

August 10, 2009 - Texas company TechRadium, which sells the Immediate Response Information System (IRIS), has sued Twitter in a federal court in Houston for patent infringement.

The three TechRadium patents in suit cover a system which “simultaneously delivers uniform, reliable and verifiable emergency messages to an unlimited number of contacts within seconds, across all means and devices of communication.”

According to TechRadium's website, the military, schools, government agencies and other such entities use IRIS for emergency notification. The patent dispute arose when it came to TechRadium's attention that companies and municipalities were beginning to use Twitter for that purpose, cutting into TechRadium's profits.

TechRadium seeks cash compensation and an injunction. Twitter is the 4th most popular social media website, with 21 million unique visitors in the month of June alone.

Teva and J&J Settle Patent Infringement Lawsuit over Oral Contraceptives

July 27, 2009 - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced on Friday that it had settled its patent infringement lawsuit with Johnson & Johnson. Teva, the world's largest manufacturer of generic drugs, will pay J&J a royalty based on the sales of the generic Ortho Tri-Cyclen that it shipped.

Teva also obtained a license to put its generic version of the contraceptive back on the market on December 31, 2015.

J&J's patent on the drug expires in 2019, according to a J&J spokesman.

Research in Motion Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with Visto Corp. for $267.5 Million

July 23, 2009 - Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the hugely popular BlackBerry smartphone, has entered into a patent infringement settlement agreement with Visto Corp., a mobile email developer, after three years of litigation.

RIM will pay Visto a one-time payment of $267.5 million to settle all outstanding worldwide patent litigation between the two companies, and will receive a perpetual and fully-paid license on all Visto patents for RIM, as well as a transfer of certain Visto intellectual property.

The patent dispute began just after RIM settled with NTP in 2006 for $612 million and narrowly avoided an injunction that would have shut down email delivery to BlackBerry phones.

Tsera, LLC Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Apple, LG, Microsoft and Many More

July 21, 2009 - Tsera, LLC filed its patent infringement lawsuit against Apple and many other defendants, claiming that their products infringe its patent, "Methods and apparatus for controlling a portable electronic device using a touchpad." The "click wheels" on the iPod classic and iPod nano, as well as the controls of the Microsoft Zune, LG Chocolate, and several other devices, are alleged to infringe the patent.

Tsera has requested a jury trial, which would be held in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler, Texas. Other defendants besides Apple and Microsoft include LG Electronics, Philips Electronics North America Corp., iRiver, Inc. and several others. The filing can be viewed here.

Google Faces Patent Infringement Lawsuit over Personalized Search

July 17, 2009 - Google is being sued for patent infringement by a company called Personalized User Model (PUM), which has patents issued in 2005 and 2008 which cover search personalization. The 2005 patent, "Automatic, personalized online information and product services," was expanded in the 2008 patent.

The complaint alleges that Google's iGoogle service, its personalized advertising technology, and personalization features found on Google's Web site infringe PUM's patents. Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges willful infringement because according to Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, the law firm representing the plaintiff, Google knew about the 2005 PUM patent because a personalization patent that it filed in 2003 was rejected.

Tune Hunter Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Apple, Motorola, Amazon and More

July 16, 2009 - Tune Hunter, a Texas-based company, has filed an amended patent suit against Apple, Motorola, AT&T, and several other major vendors in the US District Court of Texas, accusing the companies of infringing its music identification technology that enables listeners to use mobile phones and other devices to identify songs.

Other defendants include Amazon.com, Samsung, Shazam, Napster, Gracenote, LG Electronics, Pantech Wireless, and Cellco Partnership (doing business as Verizon Wireless). Shazam's products are distributed with the iPhone, and the other companies have relationships with Shazam.

Seagate and Maxtor Take Licenses in Settlement of Patent Infringement Lawsuit

July 15, 2009 - MagSil Corporation announced yesterday that it and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had settled their patent infringement suit against Seagate Technology and Maxtor Corporation. Several other defendants in the lawsuit, including Hitachi Ltd., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Toshiba America, Inc. and others remain in litigation with MagSil and MIT.

The two patents-in-suit, which are owned by MIT and exclusively licensed to MagSil, are related to Tunneling Magnetoresistive (TMR) technology.

"We are pleased with the settlement and we look forward to a favorable resolution of our claims against the remaining defendants," said Jay Kamdar, President & CEO of MagSil Corporation, in the company's statement. "MagSil has developed breakthrough magnetic memory technology for the next generation of mobile consumer, computing and storage systems. Our intellectual property is important to our business and product commercialization."

Abbott Labs to Pay J&J $1.67 Billion from Patent Infringement Lawsuit

July 2, 2009 - In the most expensive verdict in US history, Johnson & Johnson announced on June 29 that its patent infringement lawsuit against Abbott Labs was successful and that Abbott had been ordered to pay $1.67 billion ($1.17 billion in lost profits and $504 million in royalties) for infringing the patent on J&J's drug Remicade with its own drug Humira.

Both drugs treat rheumatoid arthritis, from which 1.3 million Americans suffer. The verdict was decided by a jury in the Eastern District of Texas.

The lawsuit against Abbott was filed in April 2007 by J&J's Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc. division and New York University, which has granted Centocor an exclusive license to the patent. Abbott is expected to appeal the decision.

Sony Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with CalTech over Digital Cameras

June 25, 2009 - The California Institute of Technology has settled its patent infringement lawsuit against Sony Corp. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

CalTech sued 6 companies that manufacture digital cameras, including Canon Inc., Nikon Corp., Panasonic Corp., Olympus Corp. and Samsung Electronics Corp., over alleged infringement of 11 patents related to pixel sensors that improve electronically transmitted images.

Nikon and Panasonic, in separate filings on June 23, claimed that CalTech's patents are invalid and denied the infringement claims.

Vizio Scores Win in Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Funai

June 22, 2009 - Earlier this month, Vizio, Inc. filed suit against rival Funai Electric Company, Inc. for infringement of patents related to high definition flat panel televisions. Funai sells HDTVs in the US under the brands of Emerson, Sylvania and Philips.

The Orange Country Business Journal now reports that Vizio has scored a win in its patent infringement lawsuit against Funai, as the International Trade Commission granted a temporary hold on a federal ban that would have prevented Vizio from importing certain HDTVs into the US based on the fact that they contain chips that were found to infringe on a Funai patent.

In addition, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently re-examined Funai’s patent and concluded that its claims are invalid.

The ban would not have had much effect on Vizio anyway, however. “The products involved with this particular claim are obsolete and no longer in mass production,” the company said in a statement. The win is more significant in light of Vizio's ongoing antitrust litigation and the litigation over Funai's infringement of Vizio's patent.

Funai also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against LG Electronics Inc. on June 5.

j2 Global Communications Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against OneSuite

June 9, 2009 - j2, which provides Internet-based fax and other telecom services, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in California Central District Court against its competitor OneSuite, claiming infringement of j2's patent related to sending and receiving messages using the Internet and/or telephone systems. OneSuite provides prepaid long distance, plus fax and other telecom services.

j2 has filed similar patent infringement lawsuits against Protus, Venali, and other firms.

DuPont Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against BASF

June 1, 2009 - DuPont Co. has sued rival chemical manufacturer BASF SE for patent infringement, claiming that the German company's products infringe four patents DuPont holds related to an herbicide tolerant technology.

Last month Monsanto Co. (MON) filed a patent-infringement suit against DuPont and its Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. unit, alleging that DuPont is illegally using Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide-tolerant technologies.

Microsoft Ordered to Pay Canadian Company i4i $200M in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

May 26, 2009 - A jury has ruled that Microsoft must pay $200 million to Canadian software company i4i as a "reasonable royalty" for infringing i4i's U.S. patent 5,787,449.

The patent-in-suit covers a method for "manipulating the architecture and the content of a document separately from each other" and Microsoft used the patented technology in certain versions of Word 2003 and 2007.

According to Bloomberg, the $200M verdict is the fourth largest jury verdict in the United States this year to date and the second-largest jury award in a patent infringement lawsuit.

Toshiba Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Imation, Several Others over Recordable DVD Patents

May 14, 2009 - Japanese company Toshiba Corp. has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Imation and several other manufacturers and distributors of recordable DVDs.

Toshiba's suit says the defendants do not have licensing agreements with Toshiba for its patents relating to DVD format specifications, and the company is seeking damages for past infringement.

Besides Toshiba, the other defendants are Moser Baer India Ltd., CMC Magnetics Corp. and Ritek Corp. of Taiwan, and Glyphics Media, Hotan Corp., Khypermedia Corp. and Advanced Media Inc. in the United States.

i2 Technologies Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Oracle

May 11, 2009 - i2 recently filed suit against Oracle Corp. alleging patent infringement of 11 or i2's patents related to supply chain management and other enterprise software applications. Last year, i2 won a separate patent infringement lawsuit against Oracle's rival SAP, winning a settlement of $83 million.

Fractus S.A. Takes on 10 Cell Phone Manufacturers in a Patent Infringement Lawsuit over 9 Patents

May 11, 2009 - Cell phone manufacturer Fractus S.A., of Barcelona, Spain, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas against 10 cell phone manufacturers. The patents-in-suit are related to internal antennas for cellular phones and other applications, and the defendants are Samsung, LG, RIM, Pantech, Kyocera, Palm, HTC, Sharp, UTStarcom, and Sanyo.

Fractus holds over 30 U.S. patents and over 80 patents worldwide, and has won industry awards for technological innovation.

Abbott Laboratories Sues Johnson & Johnson for Patent Infringement Over New Simponi Drug

May 6, 2009 - Abbott Laboratories has BizJournals.com) - i2 Technologies sued California rival Oracle Corp. over the alleged infringement of 11 patents Thursday.

Filed in the federal Eastern District of Texas, the litigation alleges Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) has infringed on patents related to software aimed at large companies.

One area of focus of the patents relates to so-called “supply chain management,” which helps manufacturers and other firms manage their relationships with their suppliers. Dallas-based i2 (NASDAQ: ITWO) is a large supplier of supply-chain management software, as it Oracle.

In a voicemail Thursday morning, a spokeswoman for Oracle declined to comment.

Google's Android name at center of trademark infringement suit by an Illinois developer

May 3, 2009 - (Source: ComputerWorld) - Illinois developer Erich Specht, filed suit this week for trademark infringement against Google and some 47 other companies in the Open Handset Alliance. At stake are the rights to the Android name which denotes Google's version of Linux that adorns their handsets.

Specht has officially owned the trademark to "android" since he registered it in 2000. Two years later, the US Patent and Trademark Office awarded the trademark to Android Data, Specht's company. The USPTO granted the application noting that no application would be granted the exclusive right to use the term data, therefore making "android" that dominant word and the trademark.

Android Data, Specht's company, was dissolved in 2004 and lost its domain name androiddata.com. A new domain name android-data.com was registered a few weeks ago in anticipation of the lawsuit.

What does Google say? "We believe the complaint has no merit," a Google spokesperson said. "We plan to defend against them vigorously."

Sun Microsystems Prevails in Patent Infringement Suit Brought by Versata

April 27, 2009 - (Source: eWeek.com) - Sun Microsystems received some welcome news April 27 when a jury in Marshall, Texas, turned down a complicated 3-year-old patent infringement and trade secrets lawsuit brought by software development company Versata.

Versata, formerly called Trilogy Software, had sought more than $100 million in damages from Sun for alleged patent infringement, breach of contract, interference with an existing contract, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition.

Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse Code, honored by Google logo

April 27, 2009 - Google is known for changing its logo for a day in honor of holidays and events, but visitors to the site today found the code "–. --- --- –. .-.. ." instead of the usual logo. Why? To honor the birthday of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of the single wire telegraph. Morse was born on April 27, 1791.

Originally an accomplished portrait artist, Morse is better known for his patent on a method of transmitting messages over electrical wires, which quickly became the standard method of swift long-distance communication. Every letter of the alphabet was translated into a combination of dots and dashes in the code to which Morse gave his name.

Morse's patents include several related to the electric telegraph:

* US Patent 1,647, Improvement in the mode of communicating information by signals by the application of electro-magnetism, June 20, 1840

* US Patent 1,647 (Reissue #79), Improvement in the mode of communicating information by signals by the application of electro-magnetism, January 15, 1846

* US Patent 1,647 (Reissue #117), Improvement in electro-magnetic telegraphs, June 13, 1848

* US Patent 1,647 (Reissue #118), Improvement in electro-magnetic telegraphs, June 13, 1848

* US Patent 3,316, Method of introducing wire into metallic pipes, October 5, 1843

* US Patent 4,453, Improvement in Electro-magnetic telegraphs, April 11, 1846

* US Patent 6,420, Improvement in electric telegraphs, May 1, 1849

Though he is famous now, during his lifetime, Morse experienced a lot of the same frustrations trying to enforce his patents that many inventors do today. In 1848, he wrote in a letter to a friend:

"I have been so constantly under the necessity of watching the movements of the most unprincipled set of pirates I have ever known, that all my time has been occupied in defense, in putting evidence into something like legal shape that I am the inventor of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph!! Would you have believed it ten years ago that a question could be raised on that subject?"

And from that snippet of a famous inventor's letter, it's clear that the need for contingency patent enforcement is nothing new.

Qualcomm, Broadcom settle long-running patent infringement dispute

April 26, 2009 – Qualcomm and Broadcom announced jointly that they have settled their patent litigation, with Qualcomm paying Broadcom $891 million over a four-year period. Broadcom and Qualcomm agree not to assert patents against each other for their respective integrated circuit products and certain other products and services and Broadcom agrees not to assert its patents against Qualcomm's customers for Qualcomm's integrated circuit products incorporated into cellular products.

Qualcomm issued the following statement on Sunday, April 19: "Qualcomm and Broadcom today announced that they have entered into a settlement and multi-year patent agreement. The agreement will result in the dismissal with prejudice of all litigation between the companies, including all patent infringement claims in the International Trade Commission and U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, as well as the withdrawal by Broadcom of its complaints to the European Commission and the Korea Fair Trade Commission."

House bill calls for pilot program to educate federal judges about patents and patent infringement

A bill currently under consideration in the House of Representatives would, if passed, provide for the establishment of a pilot program to educate federal judges who do not have a patent-related background, but who hear patent infringement cases, about patent law. The bill was introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

As set forth on the GOP website (www.GOP.gov), the bill, H.R. 628, would “allow district judges to request patent-related cases that deal with one or more issues arising under any law. The senior judge of a district court would then be authorized to assign patent cases and ‘plant variety protection’ cases to those district judges that request such cases and to remove such cases from a judge's case load without experience with these types of cases.”

The bill would also provide funding for those district judges seeking to participate in the pilot program, as well as compensation for law clerks with “expertise in technical matters arising in patent and plant variety protection cases.”

As of April 19, the bill had passed in the House and has gone on to the Senate for a vote.

Apple ordered to pay $19 million to Opti Inc. in patent infringement suit

April 24, 2009 - Opti Inc., a technology company based in Palo Alto, filed a lawsuit against Apple in January 2007, alleging that Apple infringed Opti's patent for “Predictive snooping” – a method to more efficiently transfer data among the CPU, memory, and “other devices.” Apple admitted using similar technology, but claimed that the patent was invalid due to prior art and obviousness.

The case was tried in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, where a jury found that Apple was guilty of willful infringement. Apple has now been ordered to pay $19 million in damages to Opti.

Boston Scientific Loses Patent Infringement Suit with Johnson & Johnson

April 20, 2009 - A federal judge has ruled that Boston Scientific must pay a 5.1 percent royalty rate on its sales of catheters that infringe the patents of Cordis Corp., a division of Johnson & Johnson. The rate set by US District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco is much higher than the 0.5 percent that Boston Scientific had negotiated for.