Photo: ShutterstockFacebook, 3 Other Social Networks Hit With Patent Suits
An IP Valuation Partners affiliate is asserting patents recently acquired from Intellectual Ventures against Facebook, Instagram, Snap and Foursquare Labs.
October 08, 2018 at 06:21 PM
3 minute read
Facebook and three other social media companies are facing a blast of patent infringement claims in California from a nonpracticing entity with ties to IP Valuation Partners.
Corrino Holdings LLC sued Facebook Inc.; Facebook subsidiary Instagram Inc.; Snap Inc.; and Foursquare Labs Inc. on Oct. 4. Corrino is asserting patents related to search, GPS location services and social media usage metrics. The suits generally accuse the social networks of infringing when they notify users of nearby services or enable search within a geographical range.
For example, the technology underlying U.S. Patent 7,847,685 allows a user “to quickly locate a sushi restaurant within one square mile of his/her present location,” according to the suit against Facebook. The '685 represents “an unconventional solution to problems arising in the context of Internet search engine systems, namely, that such systems returned too many search results, much of which was of little to no interest to the user,” states Jeffrey Craft of the Calabasas-based Devlin Law Firm in a 123-page complaint against Facebook.
Corrino is also represented by partners George Lee and Sean Sullivan, as well as associates Michael Boyea, Cole Richter and Jae Pak of Chicago's Lee Sullivan Shea & Smith.
The Instagram, Snap and Foursquare actions are brought by the same attorneys and assert subsets of the same patents.
Corrino Holdings was formed in December and acquired the patents-in-suit from Intellectual Ventures in June, according to research by defensive patent aggregator RPX Corp. IPVal co-founder Jason Bourgeois is listed as Corrino's managing member. IPVal was formed in 2015 by Bourgeois and two other Texas patent attorneys to provide “turn-key solutions that create revenue from IP assets.”
Corrino Holdings v. Facebook, Corrino Holdings v. Instagram, Corrino Holdings v. Snap and Corrino Holdings v. Foursquare Labs have been assigned to four different judges in the Central District of California, but will likely be consolidated before one.
No counsel have entered appearances for Facebook yet, but the company is typically represented in patent infringement litigation by Cooley partners Michael Rhodes, Heidi Keefe and Mark Weinstein. Facebook and Snap have been battling patent claims this year filed by BlackBerry Inc. before U.S. District Judge George Wu of the Central District of California.
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