Trend Micro announced Wednesday that Judge Leonard Stark for the U.S. District Court of Delaware invalidated two Intellectual Ventures patents that have been asserted against Trend Micro since 2010. Judge Stark ruled that the patents were too abstract and not patent eligible. Trend Micro applauds the court’s decision which voids the need for a trial in early May.
“At Trend Micro, we recognize how important patent rights are for
companies who invest millions of dollars in research and development, in
addition to the human capital required to create innovative products in
a competitive industry like software security,” said Eva Chen, CEO,
Trend Micro. “We respect the judge’s decision that patents should
protect new, original thinking and generic or abstract ideas do not
become patentable merely because they are embodied in software. This
validation is positive for our entire industry.”
Intellectual Ventures sued Trend Micro in 2010, seeking $150 million for
its alleged infringement of U.S. Patents 6,460,050 (‘050) and 6,073,142
(‘142), along with two other patents that are no longer being asserted
against Trend Micro. The ‘050 patent concerns generation of a digital
identifier for email messages through a method of filtering. The ‘142
patent describes an “automated post office” which allows for the
analyzing and filtering of vetted emails recognized to be unsafe.
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