The printing industry has won a major victory in one of the largest of the most recent patent troll cases against original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
In a decision handed down in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas – Marshall Division, the Court ruled that CTP Innovations, LLC v. Quad/Graphics, Inc. was dismissed.
This was the last of the alleged patent infringement cases filed by CTP Innovations and High Quality Printing Innovations to be dismissed.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys in the previous cases and in the Quad/Graphics case were unsuccessful in their demands for license fees to use technology common to some of the most basic equipment provided by OEMs and used by the printing industry’s service providers.
“Let this be a lesson to other patent trolls attempting to extort funds from printing industry service providers and OEMs using equipment and software generic to the industry," says Harvey Levenson, Cal Poly Professor Emeritus, who wrote two White Papers on the matter over the past two years.
Levenson defines a patent troll as…”a company or individual having nothing to do with developing and distributing the technology that patents teach, but buys-up patents for the sole purpose of exploiting individuals or companies using technology that even remotely relates to a patent’s claims.”
The lead attorney who successfully defended the accused printers and OEMs, Nate St. Clair, was unable to discuss the terms of any settlement; however, he indicated that Quad/Graphics was happy with the overall outcome in this case. In fact, according to St. Clair, Quad/Graphics was prepared to defend this litigation through trial.
“While all of the cases have been dismissed, the patents still exist, and the industry should be vigilant of any further suits," says St. Clair. "Though it is not likely to happen in the case of this plaintiff, it could happen with other plaintiffs and other patents describing software-driven technology for the printing industry.”