Menu
Jan 16, 2020

Okay, Google: Did You Violate U.S. Antitrust Laws?

Google[1] rang in the New Year with a fresh lawsuit, filed against it on November 25, 2019, looming in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by Inform, Inc. (“Inform”), an online advertising company.[2] Nothing says “Merry, Merry” and “Happy New Year” like a fresh batch of anticompetitive claims against the search engine we all resorted to for our obligatory “what to give Dad” and “30-day cleanse” searches.  The suit alleges that “[t]o maximize [Google’s] advertising profits, to protect their valuable monopolies against potential competitive threats, and to extend Defendants’ [monopolies] globally and across digital devices,… Read more


Feb 20, 2019

Establishing Proper Venue in Patent Cases

Patent Cases: Is Computer Equipment Proper Venue?

Can Computer Equipment Serve as a “Regular and Established Place of Business” in Patent Cases? On February 5, 2019, the Federal Circuit denied rehearing en banc in In Re Google LLC, 2018-152 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 5, 2019), leaving unsettled the question of whether the presence of computer servers satisfies the “regular and established place of business” requirement for establishing proper venue in patent cases. The Federal Circuit’s decision stems from patent litigation initiated by SEVEN Networks, LLC against Google in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.  SEVEN Networks, LLC v. Google LLC, 2:17-cv-442-JRG (E.D. Tex.).  In that… Read more


Sep 21, 2017

SGR Client InfoGation LLC Survives Google IPR Challenge

Patents File Folder

Smith Gambrell & Russell (SGR) attorneys Michael Makuch and  Ryan Varnum successfully defended the validity of a patent covering turn by turn navigation for our client, InfoGation LLC. On September 11, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) declined to institute an Inter Partes Review (IPR) filed by Google.  The PTO agreed with SGR’s arguments that Google’s IPR Petition failed to present sufficient grounds for instituting a review. The patent in question, U.S. 6,292,743, is being asserted by an SGR patent litigation team against handset makers HTC, ZTE, and Huawei in the Southern District of California, based on… Read more