Jury Invalidates One of EFF's ‘Most Wanted’ Patents
Good news in the fight against bad software patents: a jury in the Eastern District of Texas recently found the Firepond/Polaris patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,411,947) invalid. This patent was on EFF's “Most Wanted” list …
Context & Ripple Effects
EFF had placed U.S. Patent No. 6,411,947 — held by Firepond/Polaris — on its 'Most Wanted' list of the worst offenders in software patenting, a campaign that names the patents EFF considers most ripe for challenge.
The invalidation came from a jury in the Eastern District of Texas, the same venue where Eolas won an early round against Microsoft in the 2005 browser patent fight, so a plaintiff-friendly forum delivering a defense-side verdict carries extra weight for how patent holders weigh their odds there.
First-order effects
- Firepond/Polaris loses the legal foundation for enforcing or licensing Patent No. 6,411,947, and any company facing live demands under that patent now has a jury invalidity verdict to point to.
Second-order effects
- Other patents on EFF's 'Most Wanted' list become more attractive targets for the same kind of court challenge, raising the expected cost of asserting broad software patents against operating companies.
Third-order effects
- If juries keep invalidating aggressively claimed software patents in the Eastern District of Texas, the venue's reputation tilts from plaintiff haven toward genuine risk for patent assertion generally — though one verdict is a data point, not yet a pattern.
The trend: Courtroom invalidation, amplified by EFF's targeted campaigns, is emerging alongside USPTO review as the mechanism for pruning overly broad software patents.