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News Release - AOL settles lawsuit over background “whisper ad” patent

April 2nd, 2008 by admin

NEWS RELEASE
 
April 2, 2008
 
St. Louis – A patent infringement lawsuit filed on behalf of Newport Beach, Calif.-based Creative Internet Advertising Corp. against AOL LLC over “whisper ad” technology that displays background images in instant messages and e-mails has been settled.

Last July, CIAC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp., filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AOL and Yahoo Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. CIAC alleged that Yahoo Mail and AOL Instant Messenger programs infringed on a patent titled “Background Advertising System.” The plaintiff sought the enjoinment of further patent infringement, treble damages and an order to impound and destroy all allegedly infringing products.

The suit was filed by Anthony G. Simon with the St. Louis-based law firm Simon۰ Passanante, as well as two Longview, Texas, firms: the Ward & Smith Law Firm and the Albritton Law Firm.

According to Simon, the patent is quite valuable. “It provides advertisers a way to promote a brand or trademark without resorting to junk mail.”

Simon notes that in 2005 his client contacted Yahoo about a possible licensing deal. However, Yahoo claimed that it didn’t need a patent for the technology and instead offered mail users a fee-based feature that allowed them to choose background patterns, such as Hello Kitty and holiday themes, for their e-mails. AOL Instant Messenger offered a similar feature that also allowed users to choose movie-theme backgrounds.

On March 20, AOL LLC agreed to settle the claims against it. Although the terms are confidential, the settlement includes a patent license agreement. The claims against Yahoo are pending.

St. Louis-based Simon۰Passanante, P.C. handles intellectual property and commercial litigation cases nationwide. For more information, contact Anthony G. Simon at 314-241-2929 or e-mail asimon@simonpassanante.com.
 
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Media contact: Geri L. Dreiling
Legal Media Matters LLC
314.743.3851 or 314.520.3897
legalmediamatters@sbcglobal.net

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