Implicit Networks Sued by Sun

It's been a bad month for local patent licensing company, Implicit Networks. Its case against Intel, Sun, Real, and AMD was stayed in view of reexamination, and now, it has been DJed (pronounced "dee-jay-ed," yes, it can be a verb, meaning "to sue for a declaratory judgment") by Sun.

Sun filed a complaint on January 15, 2009, asking for an order invalidating US Patent Nos. 6,324,685 and 6,976,248, and further asking for an order of noninfringement and unenforceability (apparently based on laches and equitable estoppel, not inequitable conduct). Both patents-in-suit relate to software methods for providing applets and enhanced security features for computer-servers. The complaint was filed in the USDC, Northern District of California by Fish and Richardson. The complaint contains some interesting allegations of personal jurisdiction over Implicit Networks (a small Seattle-based company with few contacts, if any, in California), and incorrectly refers to a related case involving these patents (filed against Adobe, IBM, Oracle, and SAP) as filed in the "Middle Western District of Washington." Implicit's WDWA case against IBM, Oracle, Adobe, and SAP involves Infringement allegations targeting IBM's Websphere Application Server, Oracle's Application Server and BEA WebLogic Server, SAP's NetWeaver and Adobe's JRun and ColdFusion products.


Implicit%20Networks%20DJ%20Complaint%20by%20Sun.pdf

Seattle Patent Litigation Update: July 2008

It was a very busy month in July for patent litigation. Here is the case list.

July 29, 2008
Chef'n Corporation v. Trudeau Corporation
WA Western
Pechman
Patent
Federal Question
Plaintiff: Chef'n Corporation; Defendant: Trudeau Corporation

July 23, 2008
Northwest Agricultural Products, Inc. v. Emerald Bioagriculture Corp
WA Eastern
Shea
Patent
Federal Question
Plaintiff: Northwest Agricultural Products, Inc.; Defendant: Emerald Bioagriculture Corp

July 15, 2008
Malki v. Franke Commercial Systems Inc. et al
WA Western
Martinez
Patent
Federal Question
Plaintiff: Avraham Malki; Defendant: Franke Commercial Systems Inc., H & K Norwood Inc., McDonald's Corporation

Implicit Networks Inc. v. International Business Machines Corporation et al

WA Western
Tsuchida
Patent
Federal Question
Plaintiff: Implicit Networks Inc.; Defendant: International Business Machines Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Sap America Inc., Adobe Systems Incorporated
July 11, 2008

Loops, LLC et al v. Phoenix Trading, Inc. et al
WA Western
Martinez
Patent
Federal Question
Plaintiff: Loops, LLC, Loops Flexbrush LLC.; Defendant: Phoenix Trading, Inc., Wendy Hemming, Jeffrey R Hemming, H&L Industrial, Does
July 8, 2008

Widevine Technologies Inc v. Verimatrix Inc
WA Western
Robart
Patent
Federal Question
Plaintiff: Widevine Technologies Inc; Defendant: Verimatrix Inc

You might take notice that this list includes another patent case by Implicit Networks, a relatively unknown local technology owner with some pretty large bones to pick. Implicit's case filed last month is against IBM, Oracle, Adobe, and SAP. It also filed in February against Intel, AMD, Sun, NVIDIA, Raza, and Real Networks. Made me think "Hey ... you forgot someone ... 'your potential, our passion.'"

Implicit's case against IBM, Oracle, Adobe, and SAP involves Infringement allegations targeting IBM's Websphere Application Server, Oracle's Application Server and BEA WebLogic Server, SAP's NetWeaver and Adobe's JRun and ColdFusion products. The patents-in-suit are for computer-server software that performs faster security functions, US 6,324,685, and 6,976,248.

Implicit's case against Intel and others involves US Patent No. 6,629,163 covering "A method and system for demultiplexing a first sequence of packet components to identify specific components wherein subsequent components are processed without re-identifying components." This is basically, a system for processing encrypted data. According to allegations in the Complaint, this technology is used in Intel's Viiv platform, the Java Media Framework, ATI Radeon hardware, software from NVIDIA called Stant, and other products.

In both cases, Implicit is represented by James Rogers, as well as Ed Goldstein, Corby Vowell, adn Matt Prebeg of Houston, Texas. Texas lawyers filing contingent fee-patent litigation in Seattle? Why not. You'll get to trial faster here than in the so-called "rocket docket" of East Texas, where patent cases are languishing due to a back-log.