Tuesday, January 7, 2014

United Airlines, Aeritas Settle Suit over Mobile Application

Case Filed: Oct 13, 2011
Case closed: Jan 02, 2014
Court: Delaware District Court
Judge: Sue L. Robinson
Case Summary:
United Airlines was sued by Aeritas, a patent holder over wireless transaction technology for mobile check-in and boarding passes. Aeritas, aka Propel Technology Team offers mobile commerce products including mobile pass for buying tickets online and downloading to a cell phone. The patents in question were: US7933589 and US7209903 both entitled ‘Method and system for facilitation of wireless e-commerce transactions’, issued on Apr 27, 2011 and Apr 24, 2007, respectively. The patents expire[i] by Oct 17, 2020 and are currently assigned[ii] to Aeritas (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).
According to the complaint the defendant’s products and services offering end user mobile applications that allow users to request a transaction and triggering an event in response to the requests, infringe the above patents. Aeritas cites Mobile Site, Mobile Check-in and Mobile Boarding Documents as the infringing products and services.
It appears that the parties agreed to end the dispute and reached a pact entitled “Agreement” dated Dec 15, 2013. Later, they filed a stipulated motion to dismiss, subject to the terms of settlement, pursuant to which the Court granted the motion and ordered the claims dismissed with prejudice. Each party will bear their own costs and fees. Terms of settlement were not disclosed.  
Aeritas also filed separate suits against Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group asserting the same patents, which were closed on the same day.
See 1:11-cv-00970 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.





[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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