Three GOP presidential candidates got slapped with a patent infringement suit yesterday (read it below) by a California partnership that holds a patent with social media implications for the candidates’ Facebook pages.
EveryMD, a California partnership, contends that one of its patents that enables individual Facebook members like Defendants Santorum, Romney, and Gingrich “to create individual home pages (‘Facebook Pages’).” Instead of suing Facebook, however, EveryMD opted to sue the GOP presidential candidates.
What makes this lawsuit particularly fascinating is that it comes on the heels of plaintiff’s unsuccessful attempts to get Facebook to buy its patent. (view the patent below).
EveryMD holds three U.S. patents for a “Method, Apparatus and Business System for Online Communications with Online and Offline Recipients.”
- U.S. Patent No. 6,661,714
- U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/447,755, and
- U.S. Patent No. 7,644,122
It is this last patent, the ‘122 patent, that brings Santorum, Romney, Gingrich and their campaigns to court. EveryMD alleges that the three GOP candidates “have taken advantage of EveryMD’s voluntary [patent] licensing program” offer last year, and offer that expired. The now-rescinded program would have let the candidates pay $500 a piece “to avoid liability for infringement of the ‘122 patent.”
You can read the lawsuit below, and follow the case docket here:
EveryMD v. Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Does
You can read the patent in controversy (U.S. Patent NO. 7,644,122) here:
EveryMD v. Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Does
