Yahoo wins a patent case

ITS A PATENT WIN for Yahoo this week as the web portal opens the champers after winning the Bright Response patent case.

Bright Response sued Google and Yahoo for nicking its '947 patent, which covers the invention of an automatic message interpretation and routing system.

It alleged that Google's Adwords service and Yahoo's Sponsored Search product infringed claims 30, 31 and 33 of the patent.

Bright Response wanted $64.2 million to $128.4 million in damages from Google and $13.7 million to $27.4 million from Yahoo.

Google and Yahoo denied Bright Response's assertions of infringement and argued that the claims in the patent are invalid for reasons of anticipation, obviousness, failure to satisfy the written description requirement and failure to name the proper inventors.

The jury agreed, finding that Google and Yahoo proved, by clear and convincing evidence, that the claims of the patent are invalid based on those reasons.

Yahoo said today that it was pleased with the outcome of the case and the jury's decision.

It said in a statement, "We believed we did not infringe and that the patent was invalid, and we are delighted that the jury found in Yahoo!'s favor on both accounts. Yahoo! respects intellectual property and will continue to protect its freedom to operate by defending itself against meritless claims." µ