Vringo Lawsuit Claims Microsoft Infringed Search Filtering Patents
Vringo subsidiary I/P Engine filed a patent suit against Microsoft, claiming Microsoft violated two patents on search relevance filtering technology -- the patents I/P Engine used to successfully sue Google and others last year. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, alleges repeated violations of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,314,420 and 6,775,664. Vringo acquired the patents when it merged with I/P Engine; Lycos previously owned them (http://xrl.us/bodwup). A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company is “unable to ... comment at this time."
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I/P Engine said in its complaint it wants a judgment saying “Microsoft has and continues to infringe the patents-in-suit.” I/P Engine “has been damaged ... and will continue to be damaged” by what it claims is infringement by Microsoft, and is seeking past and future damages “adequate to compensate it for the infringement but in no event less than a reasonable royalty” (http://xrl.us/bodwwe).
The technology included in the two patents under litigation “has become the dominant technology used to place high quality advertisements in the best positions and thereby generate substantial revenue,” I/P Engine said Thursday in its complaint. The filtering technology’s inventors -- Ken Lang and Donald Kosak -- both currently work for Vringo; Lang is Vringo’s chief technology officer, while Kosak is a tech adviser. Lang and Kosak “adapted their filtering techniques to apply to search systems and invented filtering systems and methods that: (i) filter items for content relevancy to a search query or to a ‘wire,’ (ii) provide feedback information from prior users, and in filtering the items, (iii) combine the provided feedback information with the content relevancy to determine whether (or where) an item should be returned in a search results response,” I/P Engine said. “And search engines such as Microsoft and Google have incorporated [the patented technology] within their own search and search advertising systems to provide better results."
Microsoft “has known about the patents-in-suit for years, and despite such knowledge, continued to practice the invention unlawfully,” I/P Engine said, claiming Microsoft knew about the patents while it was seeking U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approval for several of its own patents, as well as when I/P Engine won the lawsuit in November against AOL, Google and IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned IAC Search & Media. A federal jury in Norfolk, Va., found the three companies had violated I/P Engine’s patents in their search systems; the jury awarded I/P Engine $30 million in damages (WID Nov 8/12 p7). Google has not given up its fight over the lawsuit against it; a company spokeswoman said “we remain confident that the patents here are invalid, that we did not infringe them, and that we will ultimately win this case.”