Jury Invalidates One of EFF’s ‘Most Wanted’ Patents

“Good news in the fight against bad software patents: a jury in
the Eastern District of Texas recently found the Firepond/Polaris
patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,411,947) invalid. This patent was on
EFF’s “Most Wanted” list, targeted because it claimed nothing more
than a system using natural language processing to respond to
customers’ online inquires by email.

“EFF was not involved in this case, in which Bright Response,
LLC — the technical owner of the patent — sued Google,
Inc., Yahoo!, Inc. and eight other companies, alleging that
Google’s AdWords and Yahoo!’s Sponsored Search infringes the
Firepond/Polaris patent. The jury found three of the patent’s
claims invalid based on the public use bar, obviousness, and for
lacking written description. The jury also found that neither
Google nor Yahoo! infringed those claims. Finally, the jury found
the entire patent invalid due to improper inventorship.”

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