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As patent reform moved into the political spotlight during the last Congress, one patent that kept coming up was the "online shopping cart." It seemed to resonate as a technology that clearly shouldn't have been patented.
By the time it started being brought up in Congressional hearings, though, the shopping cart patent was dead. Its owner, Soverain Software, was beaten when computer retailer Newegg won an appellate ruling invalidating its patents and throwing out the $2.5 million jury verdict against it.
That ruling also wiped out Soverain's biggest win: a 2011 verdict against Avon and Victoria's Secret, in which the companies were ordered to pay almost $18 million and a "running royalty" of about 1 percent, for infringing the same patents.
The apparel companies should have been able to coast on the same legal trail created by Newegg's win. But instead of admitting defeat, Soverain actually hired more law firms and contested the appeal by Victoria's Secret and Avon.
Yesterday, a panel of judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned Soverain's trial win [PDF] and re-affirmed its decision that the "shopping cart" patent, and a related e-commerce patent, were invalid.
Read more here. (Ars Technica)
By the time it started being brought up in Congressional hearings, though, the shopping cart patent was dead. Its owner, Soverain Software, was beaten when computer retailer Newegg won an appellate ruling invalidating its patents and throwing out the $2.5 million jury verdict against it.
That ruling also wiped out Soverain's biggest win: a 2011 verdict against Avon and Victoria's Secret, in which the companies were ordered to pay almost $18 million and a "running royalty" of about 1 percent, for infringing the same patents.
The apparel companies should have been able to coast on the same legal trail created by Newegg's win. But instead of admitting defeat, Soverain actually hired more law firms and contested the appeal by Victoria's Secret and Avon.
Yesterday, a panel of judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned Soverain's trial win [PDF] and re-affirmed its decision that the "shopping cart" patent, and a related e-commerce patent, were invalid.
Read more here. (Ars Technica)