Sunday, January 5, 2014

Google, Mount Hamilton Partners End Patent Dispute

Case Filed: Apr 05, 2012

Case Closed: Dec 26, 2013

Judge: Susan Illston

Court: California Northern District Court

Case Summary:
Mount Hamilton Partners, a non-practicing entity filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google in violation of their patent US7904334 entitled "system and method for reducing excess capacity for restaurants and other industries during off-peak or other times”. The patent was legally issued on Mar 08, 2011 and expiring[i] by Dec 15, 2019. The patent is currently assigned[ii] to Mount Hamilton Partners (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).

According to the complaint, the ‘334 patent provides an innovative solution that simultaneously addresses several problems facing restaurants and other service industries.

The complaint alleged that Google operates a system to help restaurants and other businesses reduce excess capacity by offering "Google Offers", a service offering discounts and coupons. Additionally, a portion of the Google Offers website (www.google.com/offers) includes a feature called "Featured Offers" that can be used on a given date and/or at a certain time, which may correspond to off peak periods for the services. These products and services allegedly infringe one or more claims of the '334 patent, which plaintiff believes to be an act of willful infringement.

Mount Hamilton Partners and Google filed a stipulation to dismiss the case. Considering the stipulation filed by the parties, the Court ordered all claims the plaintiff raised to be dismissed with prejudice and counterclaims that defendant raised to be dismissed without prejudice. Each party will bear its own costs and fees.

See 3:12-cv-01698 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. 





[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.

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