rockstar
4 November 2013Patents

Rockstar files lawsuit against Google and smartphone makers

The Rockstar Consortium, backed by technology companies including Apple and Microsoft, has sued Google and several smartphone makers claiming infringement in the US.

In lawsuits, filed on October 31, Rockstar Bidco accuses Google of infringing seven patents from the portfolio and has also filed complaints against seven other companies that produce Android smartphones.

The development can be traced back to 2009 when Canadian-based telecommunications company Nortel went bust and auctioned a lucrative portfolio containing more than 6,000 of its patents.

The portfolio was sold in 2011 to ‘Rockstar’, which was backed by Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Ericsson and Sony, and defeated Google with a $4.5 billion bid.

“Despite losing in its attempt to acquire the patents-in-suit at auction, Google has infringed and continues to infringe the patents,” says the complaint against the search-engine, filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Richard Beem, patent attorney at Beem Patent Law in Chicago, US, said Google would have “probably expected” to face a lawsuit on the Nortel portfolio at some stage.

Beem said Apple, one of Rockstar’s backers, was rumoured to be behind the lawsuit but added that the complaint referred only to “a group led by the current [unnamed] shareholders of Rockstar.”

“The true parties in interest will come out as the litigation unfolds,” Beem said.

Highlighting Google’s “wrongful acts” the complaint adds, “Google’s acts of infringement have caused damage to plaintiffs, and plaintiffs are entitled to recover from Google the damages sustained.”

The patents in question all relate to the same invention and are known as a patent "family."

They are titled "associative search engine" and surround the way certain Internet search terms are matched with relevant advertising.

In their specifications they describe, "an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network.”

The complaint adds, “Google’s infringement of any or all of the above-named patents is wilful and deliberate, entitling plaintiffs to increased damages and to attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in prosecuting this action.”

“The subject matter of the patents seems to be, at least facially, relevant to Google’s search engine technologies,” said Beem, adding that it may be sufficient for the plaintiffs to maintain their lawsuit beyond the preliminary motion stage of litigation.

In separate lawsuits, filed on the same day, Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Pantech, Samsung, and ZTE are also all accused of infringement of patents in the portfolio.

All the companies manufacture phones that use the Android operating system, which is owned by Google.

The lawsuits claim infringement of separate patents relating to a range of technologies including US no 6,037,93, called "Navigation Tool for Graphical User Interface."

Its claims say the patent provides an “improved graphical navigation tool for electronic devices.”

Beem said although there were suggestions that the patents in question were practised, the case “has all the earmarks of so-called troll-type litigation.”

“There is little doubt that Google will try to characterise it in that way,” Beem added.

“The court chosen by Rockstar, namely the Eastern District of Texas, is a favourite forum for patent owners, especially those who do not actually practise patents in suit,” Beem said.

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More on this story

Patents
6 January 2014   Google has hit back at Apple and Microsoft-backed group Rockstar Consortium claiming its recently launched patent lawsuit is “harmful and disruptive.”
Patents
10 October 2014   Google will be relieved after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said its patent dispute with the Rockstar Consortium should be heard in California, not Texas.