Trend
Micro Incorporated (TYO:
4704; TSE:
4704), a global leader in security software and solutions, 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.
In November 2014, Trend Micro moved for judgment that the two patents
are invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice decision. However, the
hearing didn’t occur until April 10 of this year. After Wednesday’s
ruling, Judge Stark canceled the trial that was slated to begin on May
11.
“Trend Micro agrees that Judge Stark's opinion has applied the law
correctly,” said Felix Sterling, SVP & general counsel, Trend Micro. “We
have always firmly believed that the case has been based on an overbroad
construction of invalid patents since we were targeted by Intellectual
Ventures in 2010. The decision provides vindication on this issue and we
are appreciative of the court’s ruling, in addition to the tireless
efforts of our internal and external legal teams to defend Trend Micro
from this meritless litigation.”
During the course of these proceedings, Trend Micro has been represented
by Yar R. Chaikovsky and D. Stuart Bartow of Paul Hastings LLP, David L.
Larson and Christopher D. Bright of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and
Karen Jacobs and Michael Flynn of Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP.
For more information regarding the case, please see Intellectual
Ventures I LLC v. Trend Micro Inc. et al., case number 1:12-cv-01581,
residing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
About Trend Micro
Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives
to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Built on 26
years of experience, our solutions for consumers,
businesses
and governments
provide layered
data security to protect information on mobile devices, endpoints,
gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the smart
protection of information, with innovative security technology that is
simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. All of our
solutions are powered by cloud-based global
threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™
infrastructure, and are supported by more than 1,200 threat experts
around the globe. For more information, visit TrendMicro.com.
Copyright Business Wire 2015