Court Issues Judgment Favoring Google over Book on Demand Technology

Case Filed: Apr 27, 2011

Case Closed: Oct 23, 2013

Court: Florida Northern District Court

Judge: Roger Vinson

Case Summary:

An inventor named Victor Manuel Celorio filed a patent infringement suit against Google claiming unauthorized use of intellectual property. On Demand Books (ODB) and Jason Epstein, chairman of ODB were the other named defendants in the suit. The patent in suit was US6012890, entitled Electronic bookstore vending machine, legally issued to Victor Manuel on Jan 11, 2000 and expiring[i] by Oct 03, 2017. The patent is currently assigned[ii] to Victor (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).

As per the complaint, the ’890 patent discloses and claims a system for efficiently distributing electronic books to vending machines and turning them into paper books printed on demand.

Plaintiff alleged that Google and ODB provides book distribution, publishing and printing on demand services that infringe the methods disclosed and claimed in the ‘890 patent. Victor Manuel asked the Court for judgment that defendants have infringed the patent, besides a claim for damages and expenses.

On May 2012, the Court granted the motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction filed by ODB and Jason Epstein and were terminated from the case.  Both the parties filed motion for summary judgment, Court denied plaintiff’s motion and granted defendant's motion.  Later, Judge signed off the final judgment and rendered its verdict in favor of defendant Google. No further details were disclosed.

See 1:11-cv-00079 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

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[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.