Case Filed: Jul 12, 2007
Case Closed: Jun 10, 2014
Court: California Northern
District Court
Judge: Phyllis J. Hamilton
Case Summary:
California-based software
company, SpeedTrack filed a patent infringement suit against Office Depot
accusing that their patent covering method for accessing information in a data
storage system was infringed. The other defendants named in the suit were: CDW
Corp., Newegg.com, Circuit City Stores, PC Connection and Comp USA.
Patent-in-Suit:
The patent involved in this suit
is: US5544360 entitled ‘Method for accessing computer files and data, using
linked categories assigned to each data file record on entry of the data file
record,’ issued on Aug 06, 1996 and expiring[i]
by Feb 03, 2015. SpeedTrack is the current assignee[ii]
of the patent (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database.) The ‘360 patent relates to a flexible system for accessing
computer files and data therein according to user-designated criteria.
As in Complaint:
SpeedTrack alleged that
defendants infringe the ‘360 patent by advertising, selling, using and
providing websites on the Internet, which permits users to search for products
available for sale and that the defendants use ‘Endeca information Access
Platform’ to provide this search functionality. The products cited were the
defendants’ websites.
The complaint further added that
the defendants have been made aware of the ‘360 patent and infringement
allegations, thereby stating the infringement to be willful. SpeedTrack
requested court to declare judgment in favor demanding costs, expenses and
enhanced damages.
District Court Judgment:
According to court documents, SpeedTrack
accused Wal-Mart (no. 4:06-cv-7336 ) of infringing the ‘360 patent alleging that
Wal-Mart’s website allowed customers to search for products by selecting
predefined product categories which used the Endeca technology (as claimed in
this case). The court granted summary judgment of non-infringement to Wal-Mart.
An appeal was filed, but the federal court affirmed the district court’s
judgment favoring Wal-Mart.
In this case, the defendants filed
a motion for summary judgment as well as argued that the court has previously
found that the accused Endeca technology did not infringe SpeedTrack’s patent.
After court’s findings
defendant’s motion for summary judgment was granted with a judgment favoring the
defendants. In June 2014, defendants filed
bill of costs itemizing expenses incurred, for which SpeedTrack will be liable if
approved ($7775 estimated.)
Appeal Court Proceedings:
In May 2014, SpeedTrack filed an
appeal (no. 2014-1475)
challenging the district court’s judgment and the litigation is pending.
See 4:07-cv-03602
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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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