Plaintiff M4siz Limited (M4siz) filed suit last Wednesday in the Western District of Texas Waco Division against pharmaceutical company Walgreen Co. (Walgreens). The suit is a complaint for patent infringement and claims that the defendant has allegedly engaged in the “unauthorized commercial manufacture, use, importation, offer for sale, and sale of the Accused Products in the United States” through search functionality in its website.
The patent in question for the suit is United States Patent No. 6,526,402, otherwise known as the ‘402 patent. The ‘402 patent was conveyed to M4siz in May 2007 and concerns search engine technology.
Their suit alleges that Walgreens provide “information and technical support to its customers, including product manuals, brochures, videos, demonstrations, and website materials encouraging its customers to purchase and instructing them to use Defendant’s Accused Products.”
In addition to initial allegations of patent infringement, the complaint explains that Walgreens has further infringed the patent since they “aided, abetted and induced others to directly infringe at least one claim.” Through its Walgreens-branded websites, the defendant is allegedly supplying to customers a method through which they can infringe the ‘402 patent. The plaintiff asserted that the websites are “incapable of substantial noninfringing use.”
M4siz is represented by Porter Hedges. Within days of the suit, they also filed suits against other retailers like Kohl’s and The Home Depot.
