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AUSTIN, Texas - A United States federal appeals court Wednesday handed Mountain View, California-based  Google a mixed decision, determining that while the Internet search giant's successful AdSense contextual Web advertising system has not infringed on two patents held by Wisconsin-based Hyperphrase Technologies, LLC, two of three claims related to Google's browser toolbar AutoLink feature must go back to the Wisconsin district courts. In 2006 a Wisconsin district court judge granted Google a summary judgment, essentially saying the case, filed in April 2006, which had centered around five Hyperphrase patents, had no merit. Yesterday's decision hands Google a victory on three of the five patent claims, including the two AdSense claims which had the potential to do the most damage to the search leader, while keeping the two Hyperphrase patent infringement claims relating to AutoLink alive. The two claims will be reexamined in Wisconsin district court. Pleased With AdSense Decision, Google Confident Remaining Claims Will Also Be Dropped The court of appeals for the federal circuit concluded "we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment that AdSense does not infringe any of the asserted claims of [two of the] patents," and that while one of the AutoLink claims does "not infringe the asserted claims of the [...] patent," on the other two "we vacate the summary judgment that it does not infringe the [two] patents and remand for further proceedings," according to the decision. (17-page .PDF file) Google expressed happiness with the decision and its continued belief that the remaining claims are also without merit. "We're very pleased that the Federal Circuit agreed that AdSense does not infringe any of Hyperphrase's patents. We continue to believe the remaining claims in the lawsuit are without merit, and will vigorously defend against those claims," Google managing counsel for litigation Michael Kwun said in a recent Reuters article. Appeals Court OKs Google's AdSense, But Not AutoLink The original Wisconsin suit was brought by Hyperphrase Technologies, LLC and Hyperphrase Inc., which alleged that Google's toolbar utility for Web browsers, specifically the utility's AutoLink feature added in early 2005, infringed on four of its patents dealing with the way information is presented and with contextual linking, was rejected by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Google's AutoLink shows more information than typical Web links, by recognizing such text elements as book ISBN numbers or addresses which are then linked to online bookseller Amazon.com or online maps. In 2003 Hyperphrase, based in Madison, Wisconsin, took Microsoft to court in an intellectual property lawsuit, losing in district court. One of Many Cases Google Facing Google is facing more than a dozen lawsuits, and finds itself facing the kind of patent infringement litigation the top search engine might expect on a regular basis, as it expands into new areas including television, radio, social networking and mobile phone technologies. Related Links:
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8:06 pm on Dec. 27, 2007 (utc 0)