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Soverain Software LLC is a Chicago-based software company which owns patents for its ecommerce technology products. The company has patents for digital shopping carts commonly used on e-commerce websites, such as Amazon.com. Soverain’s enterprise software product Transact has been in use for nearly 18 years, and has been used by over 1,000 customers in over 25 countries, including companies such as Time-Warner, AT&T, Sony, Disney, BusinessWeek and Reuters.[1] Soverain Software has been characterized as a patent troll[2].

Patent infringement lawsuits

On January 12, 2004, Soverain sued Amazon.com and Gap Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Gap settled with Soverain in February 2005 under undisclosed terms. In August that year, Amazon settled the case for $40 million.[3] One of the patents involved a shopping cart mechanism used for online shopping.

In 2010, Soverain Software filed a suit against a number of e-commerce companies, including Nordstrom's, Macy's, Home Depot, Radioshack, Kohl's and Newegg alleging infringement of U.S. Patents No. 5,715,314 , No. 5,909,492 and No. 7,272,639 which relate to the concept of a digital shopping cart, similar to the 2004 case. When the case went to court in 2010, all defendants except Newegg had settled. Initially Newegg was found to have infringed the patents in suit and Soverain was awarded a judgement of $2.5 million fine instead of the $34 million claimed by Soverain.[2]

On January 22, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the district court and invalidated claims from all three asserted patents as being obvious in view of the prior art. The judgment against Newegg was vacated.[4][5][6][7][8] The ruling of invalidity put a stay on the remaining lawsuits in progress.[9]

On October 16, 2013, Soverain filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in Soverain v. Newegg to request a hearing with the Supreme Court of the United States.[10] Three amicus briefs were filed by i4i, Professor Eileen Herlihy and MDB Capital who supported Soverain's petition.[11] On January 13, 2014, The Supreme Court denied the petition.[12][13]


On Feburary 13, 2015 a US Court of appeals invalidated Soverain's previous victories over Avon and Victoria's Secret [14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gene Quinn (December 12, 2013). "Soverainv. Newegg: Not an Ordinary Obviousness Dispute". IP Watchdog. Retrieved December 12, 2013. Despite what you may have heard, this is not an example of a bad patent, nor is it something that wasn't new or was legitimately obvious at the time it was invented, which would have been some meaningful time before October 24, 1994. This is an example of a pioneering invention that came about at the dawn of Internet as we know it today.
  2. ^ a b Kyle Wagner (January 28, 2013). "How the "Shopping Cart" Patent Almost Ruined Online Shopping—And How Newegg Beat It". Gizmodo. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  3. ^ "Amazon pays $40 million to settle patent dispute". ZDNet. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  4. ^ In Soverain Software LLC v. Newegg Inc., No. 11-1009 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 22, 2013)
  5. ^ "Patent Watch: Soverain Software LLC v. Newegg Inc". Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  6. ^ "Soverain Patents Found Valid and Infringed". PR Newswire. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  7. ^ "Sovertain Software LLC v. Newegg Inc" (PDF). United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. January 22, 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  8. ^ Albanesius, Chloe (January 28, 2013). "Newegg Crushes Patent Troll in Online 'Shopping Cart' Suit". PC Magazine. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  9. ^ How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail, by Joe Mullin - Jan 27 2013, arstechnica.com
  10. ^ "Soverain Petition for Cert". Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  11. ^ "Soverain amicus briefs". Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  12. ^ "Internet Patent Owner Loses High Court Bid to Revive Suit". Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  13. ^ "Supreme Court Order" (PDF). Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  14. ^ ""Shopping cart" patent beaten by Newegg comes back to court, loses again". Retrieved 13 February 2015.
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