The Webb Law Firm Slays Another Patent Troll

The Webb Law Firm achieved another victory on behalf of its client Newegg Inc., the leading electronics e-retailer in the United States, in Newegg’s long-running legal battle against “patent troll” Soverain Software LLC. On September 3, 2013, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated an additional claim of Soverain’s widely asserted “shopping cart” patent and denied Soverain’s request for an en banc rehearing of the Court’s January 28, 2013 decision invalidating the balance of the claims asserted against Newegg.

Soverain originally sued Newegg and other well-known e-commerce retailers in 2007, alleging that the defendants infringed three patents allegedly covering the online checkout process, order histories, and the online “shopping cart.” All of the other defendants settled while Newegg alone took the case to trial. Following the September 3, 2013 decision, all of the asserted claims for each of Soverain’s three patents have been held to be invalid. The results of this decision will be far reaching as the Court agreed that the common sense application of well known shopping techniques to the Internet alone is not patentable. This decision also likely renders moot Soverain’s later multi-million dollar verdicts against Avon and Victoria’s Secret based upon the same patents, as well as the dozen cases pending against addition e-retailers.

The Federal Circuit’s decision in Soverain Software LLC v. Newegg Inc. is The Webb Law Firm’s third significant victory on behalf of Newegg in 2013. Earlier this year, the Federal Circuit also affirmed The Webb Law Firm’s trial court victories against Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. and Kelora Systems LLC.

The Webb trial and appeal teams included Kent E. Baldauf, Jr., James J. Bosco, Jr., Dan H. Brean, Bryan P. Clark, and David C. Hanson.

The Webb Law Firm has been helping innovators safeguard their discoveries, advance their technologies and achieve historic milestones since 1845. The Firm’s patent attorneys hold dual degrees in law and the sciences and combine their legal expertise with an in-depth personal understanding of business and industry. The Webb Law Firm is located in One Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh.

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