Court Declares 11 Engate Patent Claims Invalid

July 30, 2004 - Chicago - The string of victories in the Engate patent litigation continues for defendants Esquire and Atkinson-Baker. On July 30, 2004, the court ruled that 11 of Engate's patent infringement claims are invalid. In essence, the court invalidated Engate's key patent claims that attempted to cover a realtime feed that allows a lawyer to read, highlight, annotate, navigate, list issues, view transcripts remotely, and perform other critical functions.

The court denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the 11 remaining claims, citing insufficient evidence at the summary judgment stage to determine validity. The next likely step will be a trial on the validity of these remaining patents. The patent claims in this category include natural language or Boolean searches, messaging capabilities, realtime synchronized with audio recording, and translations into phonetic symbols. Furthermore, the court has dismissed Esquire's unfair competition claim.

Previously, the court was not going to rule on the validity of the patents. However, NCRA's amicus curiae brief supporting the defendants' motion for consideration helped to convince the court to rule on the issue of validity.

"We are gratified that the court has once again ruled in favor of the defendants and has declared 11 of Engate's key patent claims invalid," said NCRA Executive Director and CEO Mark J. Golden, CAE. "NCRA has been assisting the defendants, as well as other member firms and individual reporters that have received demand letters from Engate, for almost two years. We will continue to do everything we can within the bounds of the law in order to obtain a result satisfactory for all reporters who provide realtime services."

For the most current information on the Engate matter, visit " pathattribute="0">NCRA's Key Issues Area.