Microsoft, REC Settle Suit over Coding Method

Case Filed: Mar 31, 2011

Case Closed: Sep 25, 2013

Court: Washington Eastern District Court

Judge: James L. Robart

Case Summary:

Microsoft, Bamboo Solutions and SAP were sued by REC Software, a Virginia based company, claiming unauthorized use of its intellectual property. The patent involved in the suit was US5854936 entitled ‘Code server’, legally issued on Dec 29, 1998 to Stephen F.B. Pickett and expired^[i] by Aug 22, 2011. According to the complaint, REC is the exclusive licensee of the patent and Pickett, the President of REC is owner/assignee of the patent.

The Court document says the patent in general describes a novel technique for associating the modules of a multi-module computer program. It was alleged that defendants including Microsoft, Bamboo Solutions and SAP infringed the Pickett patent. Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central, Microsoft’s OS supported by .NET framework including Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, 2008, Windows Vista, XP and SAP’s NetWeaver were named as the infringing products. Plaintiff asked Court for judgment in favor declaring defendants as having infringed the patent-in-suit, preliminary and permanent enjoinment from using their patent, attorneys’ fees and other relief the Court may deem just and proper.

Bamboo Solutions was terminated from the case in 2011 without prejudice, followed by SAP with prejudice in 2012. Later in Sep 2013, parties Microsoft and REC Software filed a stipulation, upon which the Court granted and ordered all claims asserted by REC dismissed with prejudice and counterclaims dismissed without prejudice. Each party will bear their own costs and expenses.

See 2:11-cv-00554 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

* Expected expiration date using Patent Term Estimator, use our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store. 

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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.