Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Canon, GeoTag End Patent Dispute



Court: Texas Eastern District Court

Judge: Rodney Gilstrap

Case Summary

GeoTag sued Canon on Jan 26, 2012 stating that their patent US5930474 was infringed. The patent entitled Internet organizer for accessing geographically and topically based information, was issued on Jul 27, 1999 and expires[i] by Jan 31, 2016. The patent was originally assigned to Z Land (owned by GeaoTag), since then the patent have moved through many hands and currently assigned[ii] to GeoTag (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).

The ‘474 patent relates to network interfaces, which acts to organize information available on the internet based upon geographical distribution. Plaintiff alleged that search functions on the ‘Where To Buy’ and ‘Job Opportunities’ pages on Canon’s website infringe the ‘474 patent. Plaintiff sought judgment in favor, permanent injunction and money damages associated with attorneys’ fees.

On Jun 27, 2013, the case was concluded as the parties have filed a joint motion to dismiss the case. Pursuant to the request made by the parties, the Court ordered that all claims and counterclaims be dismissed with prejudice and no charges imposed on any parties. 

Since 2010, GeoTag has filed many suits against Yellowpages, AT&T, IBM, Oracle, Best Buy, Target and others. The suits all claim that the search systems on those websites infringe GeoTag’s patent.

See case 2:12-cv-00043 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Are you looking for a tool to calculate patent terms? Try Patent Term Estimator, our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.



[i] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents
[ii] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

No comments:

Post a Comment