Analyst Firm Can Keep Collecting Data Without Infringing On Competitor's Patent
from the well,-that's-a-good-sign dept
While we talk about patents quite a bit around here, one patent lawsuit last year certainly hit quite close to home -- because it focused on a patent related to how analyst firms could do research... and we are (you might recall) an analyst firm ourselves. In this case, two of the biggest wireless analyst firms faced off in a lawsuit, after Telephia claimed it held a patent on a method for measuring wireless device and network usage -- basically a way to collect the data used in all kinds of analyst reports. Luckily for all the analyst firms out there who collect data in a variety of ways, the target of the lawsuit, M:Metrics fought back... and succeeded. A judge has dismissed Telephia's patent lawsuit against M:Metrics along with some stern words for Telephia, noting that the claims have been shown "to be either factually baseless or so highly attenuated that they fail to raise any issue of material fact." Phew. Go on collecting data at will.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: analysts, patents, wireless
Companies: m:metrics, telephia
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
They just figured, "What the heck. Maybe we'll win!"
[ link to this | view in thread ]