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October 29, 2006
Amazon Bows
Amazon's
2006 Q3 earnings report, filed with the SEC last Thursday, revealed that Amazon
settled with Cendant in its infringement assertion of
6,782,370, an ecommerce recommendation patent. A year ago, Amazon settled a
similar suit from Soverain Software for $40 million, another settlement revealed
through SEC filing. Is this an omen for the
IBM assertion against Amazon? Does the pope wear a robe?!
Cendant had originally filed its suit against Amazon in October 2004, just after the patent issued in August 2004. In February 2005, Cendant temporarily dropped the suit, but refiled when settlement talks stalled. Amazon quickly lashed back in counterclaim. But with a lot more at stake, Amazon finally read the writing on the wall.
Now IBM has its patent fishing hook in the Amazon bass. It'll be interesting to see how much the fish flops around before hearing the sound of cold hard Amazonian cash hitting the IBM bucket.
Posted by Patent Hawk at October 29, 2006 6:19 PM | Litigation