Amazon has been hit with six new patent infringement lawsuits, covering everything from the technology behind the Kindle Paperwhite display to the features the company uses to maximize its online retail sales.
The company also settled two longstanding patent disputes in its recent quarter, including one settlement that involved an undisclosed financial payment to the company that had originally sued Amazon back in September 2010. Amazon said the payout to Olympic Developments AG was not material to its financial results.
Those were among the details disclosed by Amazon in its 10Q filing with the SEC this morning, following up on yesterday’s earnings release, in which the company reported a $7 million loss for the quarter.
Of course, patent disputes aren’t unusual in the tech industry these days, but the number of new suits reported by Amazon this quarter is unusually large for the company. Some of the new suits, including one filed by Boston University, have been reported earlier, but several of them haven’t previously made the news.
Here’s the rundown from Amazon’s filing.
In May 2013, the Trustees of Boston University filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. aka Amazon.com Auctions, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint alleges, among other things, that certain light-emitting diodes in Kindle Paperwhite infringe U.S. Patent No. 5,686,738, entitled “Highly Insulating Monocrystalline Gallium Nitride Thin Films.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, interest, and an injunction. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.
In May 2013, Cloud Satchel LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon’s Kindle line of products and associated web-based storage systems infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 5,862,321 and 6,144,997, both entitled “System and Method for Accessing and Distributing Electronic Documents.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, interest, attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.
In June 2013, Adaptix, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Kindle Fire infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 7,454,212 and 6,947,748, both entitled “OFDMA With Adaptive Subcarrier-Cluster Configuration and Selective Loading.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, interest, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.
In June 2013, Elia Data of Texas, LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that a number of Amazon’s web services, including Management Console, Simple Storage Service, Elastic Compute Cloud, Elastic Load Balancing, and/or Route 53, infringe U.S. Patent No. 7,113,996, entitled “Method and System for Secured Transport and Storage of Data on a Network.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, interest, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.
In July 2013, Research Frontiers, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint alleges, among other things, that “electronic paper displays” in Kindle e-readers, including Kindle 1st Generation, Kindle 2nd Generation, Kindle DX, Kindle 3G, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, and Kindle Paperwhite, infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 6,606,185, entitled “SPD Films and Light Valves Comprising Liquid Suspensions of Heat-Reflective Particles of Mixed Metal Oxides and Methods of Making Such Particles,” and 5,463,491, entitled “Light Valve Employing a Film Comprising an Encapsulated Liquid Suspension, and Method of Making Such Film.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, interest, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.
In July 2013, Telebuyer, LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon Web Services LLC, and VADATA, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint alleges, among other things, that certain features used on our retail website—including high resolution video and still images, user-indicated areas of interest, targeted follow-up communications, vendor proposals, on-line chat, Gold Box and Lightning Deals, and vendor ratings—infringe seven U.S. patents, Nos. 6,323,894, 7,835,508, 7,835,509, 7,839,984, 8,059,796, 8,098,272, and 8,315,364, all entitled “Commercial Product Routing System With Video Vending Capability.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, interest, and injunctive relief. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.
More coverage of Amazon earnings
- Amazon hits 97,000 employees, more than tripling in size in three years
- Amazon won’t say if grocery delivery business is profitable: ‘It was set up as a test’
- Amazon misses profit expectations, reports net loss of $7M in Q2
