Intellectual Ventures loses patent lawsuit against Capital One

Intellectual property can mean big business for some patent holders. In fact, entire companies exist just to own the rights to patents. If a patent holder thinks another entity has infringed on one of its patents, the dispute may have to be settled in court. Patent trials can cost companies lots of time and money in litigation, and depending on the nature of the patent, the patent owner may not be met with the outcome they desire. 

Patents are meant to protect the rights of inventors. However, in order for a patent to hold up in court, it must govern a specific invention. Sometimes patent holders will be defeated in court when the patent in question is too general to apply to the specific invention in the lawsuit. 

It was recently ruled that two patents owned by Intellectual Ventures were invalid in a case brought by the company against Capital One, according to Reuters. The lawsuit was dismissed after a judge found the patents, which covered software for web interfaces and financial databases, to be too general to be valid. 

According to CrunchBase, Intellectual Ventures was founded to develop an extensive patent portfolio. It has reportedly generated over $10 billion from companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft. Investors in the company are protected from being sued over these inventions. The Capital One case was not the first patent lawsuit that Intellectual Ventures brought against a financial institution, as the company sued several others last year. 

There are steps your business can take to protect its intellectual property from a potential lawsuit. Consult a Phoenix small business attorney to find out how intellectual property law may be affecting your business.

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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