Court Dismisses Case against Google over Sales Force Automation System

Case Filed: Aug 18, 2014

Case Closed: Oct 29, 2014

Court: District Court of Texas

Judge: K. Nicole Mitchell

Case Summary:

SFA Systems LLC (SFA), a Texas based company filed a case against Google Inc. (Google), a California based Delaware corporation alleging that the latter has infringed two of their US patents.

Patents in suit:

The patents at issue were: US6067525 entitled ‘Integrated computerized sales force automation system,’ and US7941341 entitled ‘Sales Force Automation System and Method’ issued on May 23, 2000 and May 10, 2011, respectively. The ‘525 patent expires^* by Oct 30, 2015 and the ‘341 patent expires^* by May 8, 2020. SFA Systems is the current assignee⁺ of the patents (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The ‘525 and ‘341 patents relate to an automated sales system which facilitates the sale of an item or service by intelligently integrating into a single system, tools used by a salesperson in the sales process. 

As in Complaint:

SFA alleged that Google has directly infringed the ‘525 and ‘341 patents without permission or authority from it. SFA also alleged that Google is involved in various business activities such as making, using, selling, importing, and offering to sell computer implemented sales systems including methods for facilitating processes relating to the sale and provision methods of products and services.

Plaintiff also added that Google’s foregoing acts of infringement were willful and deliberate. Hence SFA is entitled to recovery of past damages, at a minimum, a reasonable royalty along with interests and costs.

Case Conclusion:

Joint stipulation of dismissal was filed by the parties’ and accordingly court ordered claims to be dismissed with prejudice with each party bearing its own costs and expenses, thereby ending the litigation.

MaxVal had discussed this case earlier on Aug 20^th 2014 when it was filed. The below mentioned blog address portrays the history of the case.

http://maxval-ip.blogspot.in/2014/08/sfa-systems-sues-google-over-sales.html

See 6:14-CV-00705 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

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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.

SFA Systems Sues Google over Sales Force Automation System

Case Filed: Aug 18, 2014

Court: District of Texas

Case Summary:

SFA Systems LLC (SFA), a Texas based company filed a case against Google Inc. (Google), a California based Delaware corporation alleging that the latter has infringed two of their US patents.

Patents in suit:

The patents at issue were: US6067525 entitled ‘Integrated computerized sales force automation system,’ and US7941341 entitled ‘Sales Force Automation System and Method’ issued on May 23, 2000 and May 10, 2011, respectively. The ‘525 patent expires^* by Oct 30, 2015 and the ‘341 patent expires^* by May 8, 2020. SFA Systems is the current assignee⁺ of the patents (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The ‘525 and ‘341 patents relate to an automated sales system which facilitates the sale of an item or service by intelligently integrating into a single system, tools used by a salesperson in the sales process.

As in Complaint:

SFA alleged that Google has directly infringed the ‘525 and ‘341 patents without permission or authority from it. SFA also alleged that Google is involved in various business activities such as making, using, selling, importing, and offering to sell computer implemented sales systems including methods for facilitating processes relating to the sale and provision methods of products and services.

Plaintiff also added that Google’s foregoing acts of infringement were willful and deliberate. Hence SFA is entitled to recovery of past damages, at a minimum, a reasonable royalty along with interests and costs.

Other Cases Filed:

SFA filed cases against defendants including Certona Corporation, Dell, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, Groupon, Inc., Hotels.Com, L.P., Netflix, Inc., and Yahoo Inc., on the same day in the U.S. District court of Texas.

See 6:14-CV-00705 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Max-Insight enables you to access all of our patent tools such as Patent Term Estimator, Patent Family Tree, Has This Patent Been Litigated, etc. in one location. Max-Insight is available in 4 different subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels. To learn more about Max-Insight, click here.

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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.

Google, HTC and Others Win Appeal over DRM Techniques

Case Filed: Jan 09, 2014

Case Closed: Jul 16, 2014

Origin Case: 3:13-cv-00194

Case Summary:

Ho Keung Tse, an inventor filed two separate lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas alleging infringement of a US patent covering user identity verification technologies to protect software from unauthorized use. The first such suit was against defendants Google, Samsung Telecommunications America and HTC, and the second was against Blockbuster. Both actions were transferred to California Northern District Court as the cases were related.

Patent-in-Suit:

The patent involved in the suits was: US6665797 entitled ‘Protection of software again against unauthorized use,’ issued on Dec 16, 2003 and expiring[i] on Dec 01, 2015. According to the complaint, Ho Keung Tse is the sole inventor and owner of the ‘797 patent, duly and legally issued by USPTO. The patent relates to protection of software against unauthorized use or copying.

As in Complaint:

The complaint alleged that Google uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) software and methods, covered under the claims of the ‘797 patent, to protect purchased application programs (apps) from use by an unauthorized user. The cited product was Google Play Store. Samsung and HTC were named in the suit alleging that their smart phones are installed with the accused product. 

Blockbuster was accused of using user identity verification methods for verifying the validity of users’ financial account information, allowing users to have free trials and also preventing them from repeatedly using the free trial services by submitting Blockbuster fake financial account information.

Plaintiff wanted damages awarded for willful and deliberate patent infringement, justifying an increase of damages of up to three times.

District Court Proceedings:

Defendants Google, Samsung, HTC and Blockbuster filed a motion for summary judgment of invalidity based on a lack of written description for which the inventor filed an opposition. The court heard arguments on the motion in Sep 2013 and granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment. Accordingly, in Dec 2013, judgment was entered favoring defendants and against plaintiff.

Appeal Court Proceedings:

In Jan 2014, Ho Keung Tse filed an appeal as district court judgment was not in favor. After hearing the case, the appeal court also affirmed the judgment favoring defendants.

See 2014-1222 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Max-Insight enables you to access all of our patent tools such as Patent Term Estimator, Patent Family Tree, Has This Patent Been Litigated, etc. in one location. Max-Insight is available in 4 different subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels. To learn more about Max-Insight, click here. 

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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. 

Appeal Court Affirms District Court Favoring Google over Snippet Technology

Case Filed: May 07, 2013

Case Closed: May 27, 2014

Origin Case: 1:12-cv-00625

Case Summary:

Bridgewater, New Jersey-based company, Suffolk Technologies filed case against Google and AOL accusing them of infringing two BT patents that have been assigned to Suffolk. The patent infringement suit concerned the use of "snippet" technology by Google and AOL where a customized summary is generated for a person conducting a search on the Internet. The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in Jun 2012.

Patents-in-suit:

The patents involved in the suit were:

•      US6081835 entitled ‘Internet server and method of controlling an internet server,’ issued on Jun 27, 2000 and expires* by Apr 04, 2016
•        US6334132 entitled ‘Method and apparatus for creating a customized summary of text by selection of sub-sections thereof ranked by comparison to target data items,’ issued on Dec 25, 2001 and expires* by Apr 16, 2017

The patents are currently assigned± to Suffolk Technologies and were originally issued to British Telecommunications Plc. (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database.)

The '835 patent provides a means by which an Internet server determines whether a webpage requesting a file is authorized to receive that file and customizes its file response in one of two ways depending upon the identity of the requesting webpage. The ‘132 patent provides a means by which a customized summary of a set of data responsive to a user's search request is generated.

As in Complaint:

Suffolk alleged that Google's servers and Google conducts the search for itself and AOL and returns a list of webpages that Google calls a "snippet." A "snippet" is selected text from the webpage that represents the content of the page.

It further alleged that Google and AOL infringe the '835 patent by providing Internet advertising services to selectively place paid advertisements for a company's product or service, including AOL’s Advertising.com and Google’s  AdSense service. 

Thus defendants made or adapted the methods and services in a manner covered by the patents-in-suit with knowledge as written notices were sent by Suffolk informing of the '835 and ‘132 patents.

Suffolk requested court to enter a permanent injunction against Google and AOL from infringing the patents and treble damages for willful infringement.

District Court Proceedings:

In Jan 2013, AOL was dismissed with court ordering all claims and counterclaims dismissed with prejudice. In Apr 2013, judgment was entered to dismiss the case with prejudice followed by final judgment, which was entered in favor of Google. It was ordered that each party will bear its own fees and costs. The order also stated that the parties can meet and confer to reach an agreement on which the court will enter an appropriate Order.

Appeal Court Opinion:

Suffolk appealed the summary judgment issued by the district court that certain claims of the ‘835 patent are invalid. Appeals court affirmed that the district court correctly construed the claims and granted summary judgment of invalidity.

See 2013-1392 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Max-Insight enables you to access all of our patent tools such as Patent Term Estimator, Patent Family Tree, Has This Patent Been Litigated, etc. in one location. Max-Insight is available in 4 different subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels. To learn more about Max-Insight, click here.

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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.

Appeals Court Rules Google Infringed Java Copyright in Android

Case Filed: Oct 19, 2012

Case Closed: May 09, 2014

Origin Case: 3:10-cv-03561

Case Summary:

The database software company, Oracle filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google in August 2010 over the use of Java in Google’s Android mobile operating system (OS). The complaint also claimed copyright infringement asserting Google’s Android infringes Oracle America’s copyrights in Java. The suit was filed in the District Court of California.

Patents-in-suit:

The U.S patents involved in the suit are:

Patent Number Current Assignee[i]	Title	Issue Date	Expiration Date[ii]
US5966702 Sun	Method and apparatus for pre-processing and packaging class files	Oct 12, 1999	Oct 31, 2017
US6061520 Sun	Method and system for performing static initialization	May 09, 2000	Apr 07, 2018
US6125447 Sun	Protection domains to provide security in a computer system	Sep 26, 2000	Dec 11, 2017
US6192476 Sun	Controlling access to a resource	Feb 20, 2001	Dec 11, 2017
US6910205 Sun	Interpreting functions utilizing a hybrid of virtual and native machine instructions	Jun 21, 2005	Jul 12, 2022
US7426720 Sun	System and method for dynamic preloading of classes through memory space cloning of a master runtime system process	Sep 16, 2008	Dec 22, 2023
RE38104 Sun	Method and apparatus for resolving data references in generated code	Apr 29, 2003	Dec 22, 2012

Assignee information sourced from MaxVal’s Assignment Database.

As in complaint:

According to the complaint, one of the most important technologies Oracle acquired with Sun was the Java platform.

The Android OS software “stack” consists of Java applications running on a Java-based object-oriented application framework and core libraries running on a “Dalvik” virtual machine (VM) that features just-in-time (JIT) compilation. Android and devices that operate Android infringed one or more claims of the patents-in-suit.

Oracle sought permanent enjoinment of continued acts of infringement of the patents and copyrights at issue in this litigation.

District Court:

The jury found no patent infringement and as to copyright infringement, jury found that Google infringed Oracle’s copyrights in the 37 Java packages and a specific computer routine called “rangeCheck,” but returned a non-infringement verdict as to eight decompiled security files. The jury deadlocked on Google’s fair use defense.

Shortly after the verdict, the district court issued its decision on copyrightability, finding that the replicated elements of the 37 API packages—including the declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization—were not subject to copyright protection. Accordingly, the district court entered final judgment in favor of Google on Oracle’s copyright infringement claims, except with respect to the rangeCheck code and the eight decompiled files.

Appeal Court:

Oracle appealed from the portion of the final judgment entered against it, and Google cross-appealed the portion of that same judgment entered in favor of Oracle as to the rangeCheck code and eight decompiled files.

Appeal court reversed the district court’s copyrightability determination with instructions to reinstate the jury’s infringement finding as to the 37 Java packages and remanded for further consideration of Google’s fair use defense.

See 2013-1021 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Max-Insight enables you to access all of our patent tools such as Patent Term Estimator, Patent Family Tree, Has This Patent Been Litigated, etc. in one location. Max-Insight is available in 4 different subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels. To learn more about Max-Insight, click here.

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[i] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[ii] 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.

Google, MasterObjects Settle Suit over Search Technique

Case Filed: Sep 17, 2013

Case Closed: Jan 23, 2014

Court: California Northern District Court

Judge: Phyllis J. Hamilton

Case Summary:

MasterObjects, a software development and design company sued Google accusing them of infringing a patent describing a method to immediately start showing search results while a user is still typing his query into the search box. The patent-in-suit, US patent number 8539024, is entitled ‘System and method for asynchronous client server session communication’, issued on Sep 17, 2013 and expiring[i] by Aug 20, 2021. Mark H Smit is one of the named inventors and founder of MasterObjects.

The complaint said that Google infringes the search technology that is claimed in the ‘024 patent and cites Google’s Instant, Suggest, Client Access Points for Search, Quick Search Box for Android, all of which provide search suggestions to a user as queries are typed. It was further stated in the document that Google had knowledge of the patent application since 2008.

The case is concluded as the plaintiff MasterObjects filed voluntary dismissal without prejudice.

The company has also sued Amazon.com and Microsoft, which offer custom search engines that start showing results while a user is entering his query.

See 4:13-cv-04304 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.  

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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.

Google, Parallel Iron Enter Settlement Agreement

Case Filed: Mar 06, 2013

Case Closed: Dec 30, 2013

Court: Delaware District Court

Judge: Richard G. Andrews

Case Summary:

A patent infringement case was filed by Parallel Iron against Google asserting that 3 of their patents relating to data storage methods were infringed. The patents-in-suit were:

•         US7197662 issued on Mar 27, 2007
•         US7543177 issued on Jun 02, 2009
•         US7958388 issued on Jun 07, 2011

All the patents are entitled ‘Methods and systems for a storage system’ and expire[i] by Oct 31, 2022. Parallel iron is the current assignee[ii] of the patents (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The patents in general describe methods and systems for storing large amounts of data.  

In the complaint filed, plaintiff alleged that defendant manufactures products and/or services implementing Google File System (GFS), which is designed to store very large data sets and to stream those data sets at high bandwidth to user applications as claimed in the ‘662, ‘177 and ‘388 patents.

The case is concluded as the parties entered into a ‘settlement agreement’. Later, they filed a stipulated motion for dismissal, which the Court granted and ordered all claims dismissed with prejudice and counterclaims be dismissed without prejudice subject to the terms of agreement. Each party will incur their own costs. Further details of the settlement were not disclosed.

See 1:13-cv-00367 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.

              

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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.