Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Acer Settles Suit over Security Methods on Mobile Phones



Plaintiff:  Tierra Intelectual Borinquen (TIB)

Defendant: Acer

Case Filed: Jan 22, 2013

Case Closed:  Aug 27, 2013

Court: Texas Eastern District Court 

Judge: Rodney Gilstrap

Case Summary:
Acer is one among 10 companies facing claims that they infringed two patents covering an authentication system for unlocking mobile device. In Jan, TIB filed cases against companies including ASUSTeK Computer, Kyocera, Lenovo, LG, Pantech, Samsung, Apple, Sony, Toshiba, ZTE, HTC at the US District Court demanding a jury trial and unspecified damages. The patents-in-suit were:

·        US7350078 entitled User selection of computer login, issued on Mar 25, 2008
·        US7725725 entitled User-selectable signatures, issued on May 25, 2010

The patents expire[a] by Mar 04, 2022 and are currently assigned[b] to TIB (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). According to the complaint, the ‘078 and ‘725 patents cover a computer implemented method for creating a signature for subsequent authentication, including authentication based on user input signals from user selectable input devices. The patents protect a system allowing users to choose between a password, face recognition and some other login method, to unlock a mobile phone. Plaintiff alleged that defendants manufacture mobile devices including Acer® Iconia Tab A110, (infringing products) that infringe the methods claimed in the patents. Plaintiff sought permanent injunction and money damages.

It appears that the parties have settled the case amongst themselves and filed for voluntary dismissal. Pursuant to the dismissal filed, Judge ordered all claims against Acer and counterclaims against TIB to be dismissed with prejudice, with each party to bear their costs and expenses incurred.

See 2:13-cv-00037 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Patent Term Estimator, use our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.
 

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

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