Case Filed: Oct 01, 2013
Case Closed: May 02, 2014
Court: Delaware District Court
Judge: Sue L. Robinson
Case Summary:
Plano, Texas-based Computer Software Protection
(CSP) filed a complaint against Microsoft claiming that the company has
violated its patent rights. CSP alleged that Microsoft infringed upon a patent
describing a system for controlling the distribution of licensed software. The
patent in suit is US6460140 entitled ‘System for controlling the use of
licensed software,’ originally issued on Oct 01, 2002 and expiring[i]
by Dec 30, 2019. The patent is currently assigned[ii]
to Starnet Communications (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database.) CSP is the exclusive licensee of the ‘140 patent, said the court
document.
The patent relates to a system allowing the software
publisher to control copying of the software it licenses to preclude users from
giving away "free" copies to others.
According to the complaint, Microsoft infringed one
or more claims of the ‘140 patent by making, using, offering to sell, selling
or importing into the United States products that utilize product activation
software. The accused product cited was Microsoft Windows XP.
CSP demanded court to declare the case an
exceptional and award pre and post judgment interest, costs and compulsory
ongoing licensing fee.
The case is concluded as CSP filed a notice of
voluntary dismissal, pursuant to which the court ordered dismissal of claims
against Microsoft without prejudice.
See 1:13-cv-01638 for more
details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation
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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.
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