It's been almost seven years since I reported on an India-based company putting a long list of companies on notice with respect to a patent application that it credibly alleges relate to Twitter/Facebook-style feeds:
"Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple, Bharti Airtel Ltd., Webaroo Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd., Amazon, AOL, Nokia, Bebo Inc., ExactTarget Inc., Ford Motor, Foursquare Inc., IBM, Linkedin, MySpace, NING Inc., Research In Motion Inc., Quora Inc., Salesforce.com Inc., Seesmic Inc., Siemens Enterprise Communications Inc., Sina.com Technology Co. Ltd., StatusNet Inc., PopBox Inc., Twitpic Inc., Peek Inc., The Iconfactory Inc., Ubermedia Inc., Yammer Inc., Facebook and Twitter."
I haven't seen any infringement litigation since then, but the last company on the list above, Twitter, faces the risk of losing its own core patent family--and, if not saved by Alice, the risk of owing damages/royalties--because of an earlier priority date of Yogesh Rathod's patent application (18 July 2006 - PCT/IN2006/000260) vs. Twitter's "Dorsey et al." patent (23 July 2007):
On March 25, 2013, a submission of prior art under 37 CFR1.501 was made with respect to Twitter's United States Patent No. 8,401,009 on a "device independent message distribution platform." The submission pointed to Yogesh Rathod's patent and was not a reexamination request, but is somewhat close to one.
On February 25, 2016, Mr. Rathod filed a suggestion for an interference with respect to Twitter's broader U.S. Patent No. 9,088,532 (a divisional of the '009 patent). His attorneys explained why their client's patent application has priority over the one underlying that Twitter patent.
The latest and most significant development so far bears today's date: the United States Patent & Trademark Office agreed to reexamine Twitter's (broader) '532 patent based on prior art including, most notably, the Rathod patent application (this post continues below the document):
18-03-12 Reexam of Twitter Patent Ordered by Florian Mueller on Scribd
A finding that one or more substantial new questions for patentability have been raised is obviously still a far cry from holding Twitter's broader '532 patent invalid, and even if the broader '532 patent died, the narrower '009 patent might survive. But it is significant progress for Yogesh Rathod.
Mr. Rathod is trying to get the very same claims as Twitter's core patent claims granted, but based on what credibly appears to be an earlier priority date.
It could be that an Indian patentee ends up owning what was considered a core Twitter patent. But he's not quite there yet. His U.S. Patent Application No. 15/053,889 is facing an Alice (§101) rejection by the examiner, which he is appealing (the appeal was filed in late November). Most recently, the examiner sought to defend his rejection in his mid-February answer to the appeal brief.
Twitter's older and narrower patent was granted at a pre-Alice time; but the broader one was granted in 2015. The USPTO is clearly applying double standards so far, holding the same claims abstract in one case after not holding them abstract in another. That's not good.
I doubt that Twitter stands much to gain from its own patents. Twitter's business is based on network effects and a strong brand. Twitter's primary challenges relate to growth (both user base and revenues), and patents are not going to be the answer.
So the best that Twitter can hope for is that the patent application with an older priority date than its own will continue to be rejected on Alice grounds. What might otherwise happen is that an Indian inventor would own some key patent claims that Twitter temporarily owned, and sue Twitter (and others) for infringement over that patent.
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