The biggest names on the internet have been sued by a
patent holding company which claims the firms are violating its
rights by automatically routing email messages.
Google, Amazon, Borders, Yahoo!, AOL and Ask.com owner IAC have
been named in the suit, filed by Polaris in the famously patent
owner-friendly jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Texas.
The patent in question, US patent number 6,411,947, covers the
automatic interpretation and answering or forwarding of an email
message.
Patent law expert Dennis Crouch, Associate Professor of Law at
Missouri University and author of the Patently-O blog, said that the
patent had already been the subject of a number of deals.
"This patent has been litigated multiple times already. All
prior cases settled well before reaching trial," he said. "This
usually indicates that the plaintiff offered a relatively low
license fee. A common licensing approach is to offer low license
rates to early licensees but charge a higher rate for later
'victims'."
The patent filing says that it covers: "a method for
automatically interpreting an electronic message, including the
steps of (a) receiving the electronic message from a source; (b)
interpreting the electronic message using a rule base and case base
knowledge engine; and (c) classifying the electronic message as at
least one of (i) being able to be responded to automatically; and
(ii) requiring assistance from a human operator."
"The method for automatically interpreting an electronic message
may also include the step of retrieving one or more predetermined
responses corresponding to the interpretation of the electronic
message from a repository for automatic delivery to the source," it
said.
Polaris's claim does not make specific allegations about exactly
how the patent is violated. It says of Google, for example, that it
violates the patent by operating "methods and systems …implementing
various websites (including, but not limited to www.google.com) that comprise
interpreting electronic messages with rule base and case base
knowledge engines as covered by one or more claims of the ‘947
Patent. Defendant Google is thus liable for infringement of the
‘947 Patent".
The Eastern District of Texas is renowned as a court friendly to
the interests of patent-holding litigants. According to some
observers, though, the courts there are beginning to take a more
critical view of patent cases.
"The Eastern District of Texas has seen a flood of patent
litigation in recent years based on its reputation as a patent
friendly court," said Crouch. "However, that reputation is shifting
as the court invalidates more patents."
