Newegg files opposition to Soverain Software’s Supreme Court petition

Los Angeles – Newegg has filed an opposition to Soverain Software's petition for the Supreme Court to review a January 2013 ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals in the Eastern District of Texas that found Newegg and other e-commerce retailers did not violate a patent on e-commerce shopping cart technology held by Soverain. In district court actions in the Eastern District of Texas, Soverain had obtained settlements and won jury verdicts estimated at more than $70 million.



On appeal, the Federal Circuit found all of Soverain's shopping cart patent claims invalid as being obvious, citing the fact that the concepts articulated in Soverain's patents were all present in the popular CompuServe Mall used in the dial-up internet era. Soverain has requested the Supreme Court hear the case, citing alleged infringement on the Seventh Amendment and longstanding Supreme Court precedent.



"We believe that the Federal Circuit correctly invalidated all of Soverain's patents and that there is absolutely nothing that should serve as the basis for



Supreme Court review of this case,” said Lee Cheng, Newegg's chief legal officer. “Soverain's Supreme Court petition is a desperate attempt to continue its lawsuit factory and extract even more money than it already has from every person who shops online. Should the Supreme Court wish to send its own message to the abusive patent assertion community, we are confident that justice will prevail. Justice must prevail, if the American economy is to be free from the uniquely American burden of unjust patent litigation."