On Wednesday, Daedalus Blue, LLC filed a complaint in the Western District of Texas against Microsoft, claiming that Microsoft infringed the patents-in-suit with its Microsoft Azure cloud computing product.
According to the complaint, the patents-in-suit “were invented by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM),” and relate to cloud computing, such as “cloud infrastructure, cloud management, network security, database management, data processing, and data management.”
The plaintiff noted that Amazon Web Services and Oracle Corporation, competitors in the cloud computing space, have licensed the asserted patents. Daedalus Blue is the current owner and assignee of these asserted patents. The patents-in-suit are United States Patent Nos. 7,177,886 (the ’886 patent); 7,437,730 (the ’730 patent); 8,381,209 (the ’209 patent); 8,572,612 (the ’612 patent); 8,671,132 (the ’132 patent).
The ’612 patent is entitled “Automatic Scaling of Virtual Machines in a Cloud Computing Environment.” It describes systems and methods for “data processing and the scaling of resources in a cloud computing environment by efficiently utilizing virtual machines (VM) that automatically deploy and terminate based on workload.” As described in the patent, the method allows users to set up virtual machines to meet their requirements, and then the cloud system deployed the VM to meet the user specifications.
Specifically, claim 1 of the ’612 patent states describes the patented system as “a method of automatic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of (VMs), the VMs comprising modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center, the cloud computing environment further comprising a cloud operating system and a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs.”
Microsoft allegedly infringed the asserted patents through its Azure service. In particular, Daedalus Blue averred that Microsoft infringed the ’612 patent through its Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) product, which purportedly uses “‘a method of autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment’ that allows for dynamic deploying and maintenance of virtual machine instances in Azure cloud, wherein the virtual machine scaling is automatically adjusted based on the workload increase or decrease in load.”
Moreover, Microsoft Azure VMSS is “a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a network of data centers, wherein Azure creates (VMs) based on the resource need.” Additionally, in Azure “workloads are typically spread across different machines to gain high throughput, performance.” Furthermore, the Azure VMSS “lets users create and manage a group of load balanced VMs” by providing “automated virtual machine scaling which allows users to deploy and maintain machines in Azure cloud.” Consequently, the plaintiff contended that these features infringe the ’612 patent.
The plaintiff sought declaratory judgment in its favor, a permanent injunction, damages, and royalty payments.
Daedalus Blue is represented by Bunsow De Mory LLP and George Brothers Kincaid & Horton, L.L.P.
