IBM and Amazon.com announced on Tuesday that they have settled all patent lawsuits between the companies for an undisclosed amount of money paid to IBM, and a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement.
In October 2006, IBM filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Amazon, claiming unspecified damages.
The suits were filed in two District Courts for the Eastern District of Texas: one suit in the Tyler Division and the other suit in the Lufkin Division.
"We filed this case for a very simple reason. IBM's property is being knowingly and unfairly exploited," Dr. John E. Kelly III, senior vice president of IBM Technology and Intellectual Property, explained at the time.
Dr Kelly continued:
"IBM is one of the world's leading creators of intellectual property and one of the most progressive in embracing new, highly collaborative ways of driving and managing innovation. Everything we do is premised on the fundamental principle that IBM's intellectual property is one of our core assets, and represents the work product of tens of thousands of scientists and engineers and billions of dollars of investment."
IBM went on to reveal details of the patents that it alleged Amazon had infringed, which included:
IBM stated that from September 2002 onwards, it had notified Amazon numerous times of the infringement, but revealed that: "Amazon.com has shown no willingness to have meaningful discussions."
“When someone takes our property, without our permission through a license, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us,” concluded Kelly.
Commenting this week on the settlement between the two firms, Scott Hayden, Amazon’s VP of Intellectual Property, observed that: “IBM’s patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the IT industry. Our license to its portfolio, and specifically to its Web technology patents, gives us greater freedom to innovate for our customers.”
Dan Cerutti, IBM’s General Manager of Software Intellectual Property, added: “At IBM, we place a high value on our IP assets and believe this agreement substantiates the value of our portfolio. We're pleased this matter has been resolved through negotiation and licensing. We look forward to a more productive relationship with Amazon in the future.”
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