Settlement Kills Kickup Over Google DoubleClick

MARSHALL, Texas (CN) - Google DoubleClick users are not infringing on another company's patents because a settlement bars such claims, a federal judge ruled.

Beneficial Innovations Inc. sued Google in 2007 and again in 2009, alleging infringement on two Beneficial patents by the DoubleClick advertising product. One patent in question is for a network game-playing method and system; the other patent is for a "network system for presenting advertising," according to records with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The parties resolved the infringement claims with a 2010 settlement agreement that granted Google and its affiliates a license to use Beneficial's patents in DoubleClick.

Beneficial later sued a number of Google customers for infringing on the patents but Google intervened, claiming Beneficial breached the settlement agreement by suing the customers, according to the ruling.

A jury found in January that Beneficial breached the settlement agreement, and U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap declined to overturn that finding last week by granting the company judgment as a matter of law.

The license granted in the settlement prevents Beneficial from claiming infringement, according to the ruling.

"The court finds that Google has presented substantial evidence demonstrating that its customers' use of DoubleClick would constitute indirect infringement (both contributory and induced infringement) by Google, but for the license," Gilstrap wrote. "Under the terms of the settlement agreement, once such condition has been satisfied, the accused Google customers are licensed to use Beneficial's patented technologies. Therefore, the jury's verdict that Beneficial breached the settlement agreement by bringing the instant lawsuit against the accused Google customers must stand."

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