shutterstock_746561179_pixinoo
13 March 2020PatentsEdward Pearcey

Wikimedia, Internet Archive want patent infringement claims kicked out

The Wikimedia Foundation and the global online library Internet Archive are seeking a declaration in a California court that their websites do not infringe several predictive text-related patents held by software developer WordLogic.

Wikimedia’s complaint, filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, on Wednesday, March 11, seeks a declaratory judgment that four WordLogic patents (7,293,231, 7,681,124, 7,716,579, and 8,552,984), all of which relate to predictive text technology, are invalid (under prior art) and so are not infringed by Wikimedia.

The Internet Archive complaint, filed at the same court on the same day, refers to the same four patents, offers the same arguments, and is seeking the same decision.

Its complaint argues that the allegations of infringement made by WordLogic entities “fail to show that Internet Archive infringes any claim of any asserted patent”, noting that the Internet Archive search box identified by WordLogic as infringing “does not perform the required steps of ‘modifying the display of the partial text entry to correspond to the particular completion candidate selected from among the plurality of completion candidates at least while the particular completion candidate remains selected’”.

The Wikimedia complaint also argues that the “[USPTO] determined that it would review the claims of the ‘124 patent because it found that these prior art references established a reasonable likelihood that the claims of the ‘124 patent were unpatentable [and] these same prior art references also establish that the claims of the other asserted patents are invalid”.

“The allegations of infringement made by the WordLogic entities fail to show that Wikimedia infringes any claim of any asserted patent,” claimed Wikimedia.

Wikimedia, which hosts Wikipedia, the ‘free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world’, and Internet Archive are also seeking an award of costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Wikimedia and Internet Archive filed their suits in response to threats of litigation from WordLogic, involving several letters and emails sent at the start of this year by law firm OhanianIP to both plaintiffs, noting alleged patent “infringement”, a request for a discussion for a “quick resolution”, or failing that, a move to “proceed with litigation”.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox.

Today's top stories:

Manchester police seize counterfeit goods worth £7.5 million in raids

TPN: How many patents are actually essential?

Bank of Oklahoma takes cannabis shop to court

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Copyright
2 June 2020   Four major book publishers have taken the Internet Archive to court, alleging the online library is engaged in “willful mass copyright infringement”.
Patents
21 July 2020   The Internet Archive and the non-profit behind Wikipedia have withdrawn their lawsuits against a software company who accused them of patent infringement.
Copyright
29 March 2023   Judge says online library’s lending of eBooks not covered by ‘fair use’ | Four publishers alleged infringement of 127 books | Full details on judge’s reasoning | Morrison Foerster | Association of American Publishers.