Oracle picks up fight against Epicrealm patents

By Tom Sanders on Jul 6, 2006 11:57 AM
Filed under Software

Database vendor demands that dynamic web page patents are invalidated.

Oracle has filed a legal claim against Epicrealm in an effort to invalidate two of the company's patents.

Epicrealm is a former web acceleration company that stopped marketing and selling its products around 2003. The company last year filed lawsuits against a group of 13 companies including Safelite for allegedly infringing on two patents that cover the way in which many dynamic web pages are constructed and served.

Although Oracle isn't part of any of the lawsuits, the company supplies software that delivers dynamic web pages. Under the terms of its software license agreement, the software maker agrees to indemnify its customers against patent infringement claims.

Oracle as well as IBM last June were forced to contribute an undisclosed sum to Safelite's settlement with Epicrealm.

Following the settlement, Oracle filed its claim against Epicrealm on 30 June in the US District Court in Delaware.

The software vendor denies that it infringes on any of the Epicrealm patents, and furthermore argues that the disputed patents are invalid.

The software vendor is seeking to prevent future claims or allegations, Oracle said in its legal complaint against Epicrealm.

"Oracle [has] a reasonable apprehension that Epicrealm will accuse Oracle, Oracle's products and/or Oracle's customers of infringing one or more of the Epicrealm patents, and/or additional Oracle customers will sue Oracle for indemnity as a result of Epicrealm's patent infringement claims."

The Oracle lawsuit could provide a boost to the legal procedure. Patent owners often go after small companies hoping that they will prefer to settle the case and avoid the legal costs. A lawyer representing Friendfinder, another defendant in the case has previously ac cused Epicrealm of pursuing such a strategy.

Oracle however has the financial means to pursue its legal case to the end, which could result in the EpicRealm patents getting invalidated.