Article One Partners Contributes Research in a Patent Lawsuit by Interval Licensing; the USPTO Reexamines the Patent Prompting the Court to Stay the Case

NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Article One Partners today announced the conclusion of a high profile research project, known as a Patent Study, of a patent asserted by Interval Licensing LLC. The patent was researched by the Article One community.  The US Patent and Trademark Office now has agreed to reexamine this patent, having found that a "substantial new question of patentability" has been raised.  As a result, Judge Marsha Pechman of the Western District of Washington has stayed an infringement case filed last year by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Interval Licensing LLC against some of Silicon Valley's highest-profile companies based on this patent and three others.

"Article One Partners is pleased to have conducted research on this patent. We want to congratulate the defense parties for obtaining a stay of the litigation in this case," said Cheryl Milone, CEO of Article One Partners. "Patent lawsuits can be costly, which is why there is no substitute for speed and global reach when conducting patent research. With a global network of researchers delivering results in as little as days, many of the most respected companies and law firms in the world are turning to Article One to help them efficiently conduct the prior art search."

The Article One Patent Study was launched in February 2011 to study prior printed publications and prior uses of technology similar to that described or claimed in U.S. Patent No. 6,263,507, entitled "Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented by Audiovisual Data."  Interval is a non-practicing entity (NPE) that is owned by Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft. Interval filed a patent infringement lawsuit in 2010 against more than ten technology industry leaders.  Interval has asserted infringement claims against certain aspects of these companies' e-commerce websites.  

Each Article One Patent Study leverages the success of Article One's global crowdsourcing community to identify evidence predating patent claims, known as "prior art." Article One incentivizes researchers with cash prizes of $5,000 to $20,000 U.S. per Study for the highest quality research.  To date, Article One has awarded over $1.5 million to its researchers. Article One Partners has conducted similar high profile Studies, including patents held by Intellectual Ventures, NTP Incorporated, Lodsys and MacroSolve.

Article One Partners

Article One Partners is a global online community leveraging crowdsourcing to deploy more than 1 million scientists and technologists who can research prior art for patents. Article One presents research requests on www.ArticleOnePartners.com and international affiliate websites for patent research in exchange for premium compensation.  The Article One community has been paid over $1.5 million to date.  Article One has been described as social media for patents. With researchers from 176 countries and projects translated into 8 languages, the community identifies key foreign language evidence and non-patent literature.  Article One counts as clients 14 of the Fortune 100, 24 of the Global Fortune 500, 5 of the top 10 U.S. patent filers and 12 of the top 30 companies targeted most frequently by NPEs.  In 2010, Article One received institutional funding and investment from Board members including Marshall Phelps, former head of IP and licensing at IBM and Microsoft. CEO Cheryl Milone has been a guest of the White House as one of the top 50 innovative CEOs in the U.S.

For more information about Article One Partners, visit www.ArticleOnePartners.com

Article One Partners and AOP are service marks of Article One Partners, LLC. All other product and company names are the trademarks and property of their respective owners. © 2011. Article One Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Article One Partners