Fresh from Recent Legal Victory, I/P Engine Now Sues Microsoft for Patent Infringement

I/P Engine, a subsidiary of Vringo, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft (News - Alert) for alleged patent infringement – shortly after scoring a similar legal victory over Google and AOL.

The lawsuit relates to the placing of ads and links by Internet search engines and involves Bing, Reuters said.

Filed in the federal court in New York City, I/P Engine is seeking damages, according to a report carried by TMCnet. The specific amount sought by the company has yet to be revealed.

I/P Engine claims two of its patents were infringed upon by the much larger Microsoft. They are U.S. Patent 6,314,420 and 6,775,664 –"Collaborative/Adaptive Search Engine" and "Information Filter System and Method for Integrated Content-Based and Collaborative/Adaptive Feedback Queries.”

I/P Engine alleges that Microsoft improperly used patented technology Vringo (News - Alert) employees created. The technology relates to "relevance filtering technology.”

This is not the first such lawsuit for I/P Engine. In November 2012, the company got $30 million in damages after a trial in Virginia. Google and AOL (News - Alert) were found to be infringing on the same patents named in the Microsoft lawsuit.

I/P Engine had wanted $696 million from the companies.

Vringo has over 500 patents and patent applications on telecom infrastructure, Internet search and mobile technology.

Neither Microsoft nor Vringo offered further comment to the news media.

If the infringement is found to be willful, the damages awarded to the plaintiff could be higher. I/P Engine has already claimed the patent infringement is willful, said The Inquirer.

In addition, SurfCast is suing Microsoft for patent infringement related to “tiles” being used in the Windows 8 operating system as well as Windows Phone (News - Alert) 8. “Tiles can be thought of as dynamically updating icons,” SurfCast explained on its website, according to TMCnet. “A Tile is different from an icon because it can be both selectable and live – containing refreshed content that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of the underlying information.”

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