Patents of patent / troll in which Microsoft paid royalty of more than 44 billion yen invalid

ByTori Rector

A patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft once went to invalidate a patent of a pirated software prevention software company Uniloc (Unirok) which acquired a royalty fee of 388 million dollars (about 44 billion yen) Was revealed.

Local lawyers get key patent winning previously unbeatable adversary - Kansas City Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2016/03/22/uniloc-patent-216-invalidation.html


Patent that cost Microsoft millions gets invalidated | Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/game-companies-knock-out-patent-that-slammed-microsoft-with-388m-verdict/

Patent 5, 490, 216 registered by Uniloc is a patent on product activation, and Microsoft was sued in 2009 as a patent infringement part of "Activate software by entering serial key number"I was ordered to pay $ 388 millionYou may.

The payment order by the jury trial was later invalidated by the judge beforeDiscard claim rightIn 2010, the upper court ruled that "the judgment of the jury trial should be supported".

According to Uniloc, this patent has suffered from about 75 companies and "one wall" that one third solved the problem in the court, many companies have suffered since 2002 .

Attempts to invalidate have been done many times so far and have failed, but this time,Sega of America,Ubisoft,Kofax,Cambium Learning Group,Perfect World EntertainmentCooperated with the Patent and Trademark Office's Board of Appeal (PTAB) for drawing invalidation of the patent.

BySteve Snodgrass

Originally, this patent was filed by Uniloc in Australia and was acquired in September 1992, which was later acquired in the United States at the same time. When each of the companies appealed later made something that infringes the patent in the United States, that patent did not exist in the United States.

By the way, the patent has expired in 2013, but since the patent owner is able to appeal backward damage within 6 years, this patent is also used in the case of 2014 It was said that it was.

However, with the invalidation of this patent, Uniloc, who has earned profits for more than 10 years as "one of the oldest and most profitable patent / troll" seems to finally retire.