On February 26, 2010, Texas OCR Technologies, LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon.com, Inc. and Amazon Services LLC, claiming Amazon.com’s “Search Inside This Book” feature infringes on US Patent No 6,363,179.

The patent-at-issue, entitled, “Methodology for displaying search results using character recognition,” was issued in January 1999. Amazon.com’s feature allows users to search for specific text within books.

Texas OCR Technologies seeks adequate compensatory damages.

SOURCE(S):  “Amazon sued over book search patent,” Northwest Innovation, February 26, 2010 (http://www.nwinnovation.com/story/0027119.html).

On February 26, 2010, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AT&T, AT&T Mobility LLC and AT&T Wi-Fi Services, claiming the companies are infringing a Wireless LAN patent.

CSIRO claims it notified AT&T of the patent infringement in February 2009, but claims the company continues to infringe US Patent No. 5,487,069. CSIRO requests a permanent injunction, damages and attorneys in the patent lawsuit.

Source(s):  “Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation v. AT&T Inc.; AT&T Mobility LLC F/K/A Cingular Wireless LLC; AT&T Wi-Fi Services, F/K/A Wayport, Inc.,” United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division, February 26, 2010 (http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/01/TechPat.pdf).

It actually shouldn’t be all that surprising, but the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted another Motion to Transfer Venue.  Thanks goes to the Docket Report for its posting of information. 

In May 2009, a jury awarded Creative Internet Advertising Corporation (CAIC) just over $6.6 million after finding Yahoo! Inc. willfully infringed a patent related to a background advertising system. Nine months later, a magistrate judge determined Yahoo’s willful violation of the patent warranted enhanced damages and prejudgment interest, bringing the total awarded damages to $12,462,291.

The patent-at-issue, USP 6,205,432, is entitled “Background advertising system.” The court found Yahoo! Inc.’s message system has a feature that allows users to add interactive backgrounds to instant message conversations, infringing CAIC’s patent both literally and under the doctrine of equivalents.

Creative Internet Advertising is a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp.

Source(s):  “The Simon Law Firm announces enhanced damages for Creative Internet Advertising Corp. in suit against Yahoo!,” Businesswire.com, February 4, 2010 (http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eon/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100204006210&newsLang=en). 

In January 2010, Johnson Outdoors Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Navico, Inc., claiming the company infringed on a recently-granted patent related to the use of sonar technology in finding fish. The patent-at-issue, USP 7,652,952, “Sonar imagines system for mounting to watercraft,” was issued on January 26, 2010.

The complaint alleges Navico induced patent infringement by resellers by informing purchasers that it would use the patented side scan technology to compete with Johnson Outdoors’ product. Johnson Outdoors seeks an injunction and a ruling of willful infringement.

Source(s):  “Johnson Outdoors files suit in federal court against maker of Lowrance,” CNNMoney, January 27, 2010 (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/182833.htm).