IBM Settles Suit with SoftVault over DRM Patents

Case Filed: Oct 29, 2012

Case Closed: Jul 09, 2013

Court: California Northern District Court

Judge: Lucy H. Koh

Case Summary:

A patent infringement case was filed against IBM by SoftVault alleging patents covering digital rights management (DRM) were breached. The patents involved in the suit were:

• US6249868 entitled Method and system for embedded, automated, component-level control of computer systems and other complex systems issued on Jun 19, 2001 and expiring* by Mar 25, 2018
• US6594765 entitled Method and system for embedded, automated, component-level control of computer systems and other complex systems issued on Jul 15, 2003 and expiring* by Sep 29, 2018

The patents are currently assigned to Softvault Systems (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The patents cover security components for a PC which can enable or disable systems using a remote server. Softvault alleges that the methods claimed in the patents are part of IBM's Tivoli Endpoint Manager. The complaint sought damages, injunction, costs and fees. 

It appears that the parties have settled the case amongst themselves and notice of settlement was sent to Court by Softvault. Following this, Court ordered all the claims and counterclaims to be dismissed with prejudice, thereby concluding the case. Each party will bear their own costs and expenses. Further details of the settlement were not disclosed. 

Separate cases were filed against Microsoft, Yahoo, Samsung, Toshiba and a spate of other tech firms. 

See case 5:12-cv-05546 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

 

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* 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.

* MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.