Case Closed: Mar 07, 2014
Judge: Terrence W. Boyle
Case Summary:
Flashpoint Technology filed a
patent infringement lawsuit against HTC, FKA High-Tech Computer Corporation, a
Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones. The lawsuit was filed in North Carolina
Eastern District Court on Aug 06, 2013. Flashpoint in its complaint claimed
that cameras on some HTC Android and Windows Phone devices infringed on patents
held by FlashPoint, a former subsidiary of Apple. The patents at issue were:
- US5812736 entitled ‘Method and system for creating a slide show with a sound track in real-time using a digital camera’ issued on Nov 22, 1998 and expiring* by Sep 30, 2016
- US5943093 entitled ‘Software driver digital camera system with image storage tags’ issued on Aug 24, 1999 and expiring* by Sep 26, 2016
- US5986701 entitled ‘Method and system of grouping related images captured with a digital image capture device’ issued on Nov 16, 1999 and expiring* by Sep 26, 2016
- US6362850 entitled ‘Interactive movie creation from one or more still images in a digital imaging device’ issued on Mar 26, 2002 and expiring* by Aug 04, 2018
The patents are currently
assigned± to Flashpoint (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database). The patents describe a method for creating a slide show with a
sound track, image grouping and creation of a movie from one or more images,
according to the USPTO documents.
Flashpoint accused the smartphone
manufacturer of directly and indirectly infringing their patented technology
and cited HTC One as the infringing product.
The complaint said, Flashpoint
has been irreparably harmed by the infringement of its valuable patent
rights," and added "HTC's unauthorized and infringing uses of the
patented systems and methods have threatened the value of this intellectual
property."
HTC filed a motion to transfer
case to the District of Delaware. Considering numerous factors including the
plaintiff’s choice of forum, witness convenience and access and enforceability
of judgment, Judge Terrence W. Boyle on Mar 05 granted the motion and ordered
the case transferred to Delaware District Court.
See 5:13-cv-00561 for more details. To get alerts on cases
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*
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.
± 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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