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.

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 individual subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels, and enterprise access plans. 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.

eDekka, Ebags Resolve Patent Dispute

Case Filed: Sep 18 2014

Case Closed: Oct 29 2014

Court: District Court of Texas

Judge: Rodney Gilstrap

Case Summary:

eDekka LLC (eDekka), a Texas based company filed a case against Ebags Inc. (Ebags), a Colorado based Delaware corporation alleging that the latter has infringed one of their US patents.

Patent in Suit:

Patent Number	Title	Issue Date	Expiration Date[i]	Current Assignee[ii]
US6266674	Random access information retrieval utilizing user-defined labels	Jul 24, 2001	Jul 24, 2018	eDekka LLC

The ‘674 patent relates to method and apparatus for hierarchically storing information thatmay be input in the form of audio input such as speech, music, etc. or facsimile (FAX) or text, or combinations thereof.

As in Complaint:

The complaint alleged that Ebags infringed the ‘674 patent by making and/or using Ebag’s website and its associated websites that include “shopping cart” functionality that are covered by one or more claims of the ‘674 patent. The infringing aspects were indicated as webpages and functionality within Ebag’s website.

eDekka added that it has been damaged by the foregoing acts of infringement of its patents by the defendant and will continue to be damaged by such infringement unless enjoined by this Court.

District Court Judgment:

Plaintiff Edekka and defendant Ebags filed joint stipulation for dismissal. Court ordered dismissal with prejudice of all claims and counterclaims asserted by the other party with all costs and fees to be incurred by the respective parties.

See 2:14-CV-00425 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 individual subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels, and enterprise access plans. 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.

[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.

Max-Insight Dashboard – MaxVal’s New Enhancement

Maxval introduces a dashboard to navigate through all its services in one page with a new enhancement.

Navigating Dashboard:

To open the dashboard, click on the arrow beside the user login name and click dashboard on it (as shown in Fig 1).

Fig 1. Accessing Max-Insight Dashboard

Fig 2. Max-Insight Dashboard

On accessing, the dashboard will be displayed as shown in Fig 2, and allows you to do the following:

•          View features of the current plan.
•          Upgrade to a new plan.
•          View utilized and available usage count of all the tools based on the current plan.
•          Download PDF brochures for all of MaxVal’s products/services.
•          Navigate to home page and reset password. 

Secure Web Ends Patent Suit against Apple

Case Filed: Sep 17, 2014

Case Closed: Oct 17, 2014

Court: District of New York

Judge: Sandra J. Feuerstein

Case Summary:

Secure Web Conference Corporation (Secure Web), a New York based Delaware Corporation filed a case against Apple Inc., a California based Corporation, accusing them of infringing upon one of Secure Web’s  U.S patents.

Patent in Suit:

US6856687 entitled ‘Portable telecommunication security device,’ issued on Feb 02, 2005 and expires^[i] by Jun 21, 2019.

The ‘687 patent is currently assigned to Secure Web Conference Corporation, (Source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database^[ii]) and according to the complaint, Secure Web is the owner of the patent.

The ‘687 patent relates to telecommunications security devices, i.e. a security device adapted for use with voice and data transmissions. 

As in Complaint:

Secure Web alleged that Apple has directly or indirectly infringed the ‘233 patent without permission or authority from it. The complaint also stated that Apple is involved in various business activities such as making, using, selling, offering to sell its Macintosh computers embodying the technology claimed in the ‘233 patent. The infringing aspects were indicated as Macintosh’s i5 and i7 processors, Mac OS X v 10.6.6 and all iPad models of Apple that includes an A7 or A8 processor

Secure Web adds that it has been damaged by the foregoing acts of infringement of its patents by the defendant and will continue to be damaged by such infringement unless enjoined by this Court.

District Court Judgment:

On Oct 03, 2014 Stipulation of dismissal was filed by Secure Web and accordingly court ordered claims to be dismissed without prejudice with each party bearing its own costs and expenses, thereby ending the litigation.

See 2:14-CV-05465 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 individual subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels, and enterprise access plans. 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.

[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.

Apple, Google, Amazon in Litigation over Method of Documents Transmission

Case Filed: Oct 21, 2014

Court: District Court of Texas

Judge: Rodney Gilstrap

Case Summary:

Vantage Point Technology, Inc. (Vantage), a Texas based Corporation filed a case against Apple, Inc. a California based corporation alleging that the latter has infringed one of their US patents.

Patent in Suit:

US6615233 entitled ‘Apparatus and method for transmitting documents between a server computer and a client computer,’ issued on Sep 02, 2003 and expiring^[i] by Dec 02, 2019

The ‘233 patent is currently assigned to Vantage Point Technology, Inc. (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database^[ii]) and according to the complaint, Vantage is the owner of the patent. The ‘233 patent claims are related to data transmissions between a client and a server computer. 

As in Complaint:

Vantage alleged that Apple had directly and indirectly infringed the ‘233 patent without permission or authority from it. The complaint also alleged that Apple infringed the ‘233 patent by making, using, selling, offering to sell, and/or importing " Apple I Cloud " products that are covered by one or more claims of the ‘233 patent. The infringing aspects were indicated as the Apple I Cloud’s online storage and synchronization.

Vantage adds that it has been damaged by the foregoing acts of infringement of its patents by the Apple and will continue to be damaged by such infringement unless enjoined by this Court.

Other Cases Filed:

Apart from Apple, other companies such as Amazon, Inc., Box, Inc., Dropbox Inc., Google, Inc., and SugarSync, Inc. were sued on the same day asserting the same patent.

See 2:14-CV-00985  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 individual subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels, and enterprise access plans. 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.

[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.

Apple Faces Patent Infringement Suit

Case Filed: Oct 03, 2014

Court: District of California

Judge: Laurel Beeler

Case Summary:

Vantage Point Technology, Inc. (Vantage), a Texas based Corporation filed a case against Apple, Inc. a California based corporation alleging that the latter has infringed one of their US patents.

Patent in suit:

·                     US5463750 entitled ‘System for accessing distributed data cache at each network node to pass requests and data,’ issued on Oct 31, 1995 and expired^[i] Nov 02, 2013

The ‘750 patent was last assigned to Vantage Point Technology (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database^[ii]) and according to the complaint, Vantage is the owner of the patent. The 750 patent claims related to a method and apparatus for translating virtual addresses in a computing system having multiple instruction pipelines.

As in Complaint:

Vantage alleged that products manufactured by defendant infringed claims of the ‘750 patent as  embodied in electronic devices and chipsets of the patented technology. The products cited were: Apple A6, A6X, A5, A5X, A4, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, iPhone 3Gs, iPad (4th Gen) iPad (3rd Gen). The complaint said Vantage is entitled to recovery of past damages, and at a minimum, a reasonable royalty.

See 3:14-CV-04442 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 individual subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with varying usage levels, and enterprise access plans. 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.

[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.