The list of companies suing up Google just got a new member in GraphOn Corp., a developer of server-based application publishing and web-enabling software solutions. GraphOn has charged Google with infringement of four its owned patents.
Filing their complaint in US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, GraphOn complains that Google has infringed on their U.S. Patent Nos. 6,324,538 (the ‘538 patent), 6,850,940 (the ‘940 patent), 7,028,034 (the ‘034 patent) and 7,269,591 (the ‘591 patent).
All these patents protect GraphOn’s unique method of maintaining an automated and network-accessible database. According to the complaint, Google’s Base, Adwords, Blogger, Google Sites and YouTube have infringe on the GraphOn patents and the company is seeking permanent injunctive relief along with yet-to-be determined damages.
Interestingly, GraphOn is no longer stranger to this kind of complaints. It previously filed the same patent infringement case against AutoTrade.com (2005), Juniper Networks (2007) and Classified Ventures, LLC, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Match.com, LLC, Yahoo! Inc., eHarmony.com, and CareerBuilder, LLC. Of these three lawsuits, GraphOn has settled only with AutoTrader.com recently.
Google has not yet published any official statement regarding this lawsuit.
