FotoMedia Technologies, LLC (“FMT”) owned by Scenera Research, has asserted U.S. Patent Nos. 6,018,774, 6,542,936 and 6,871,231 purportedly covering photo-sharing websites against more than 60 companies, including inter alia AOL, CBS, Yahoo, Sprint, Nokia, and Scripps in a number lawsuits in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Marshall) in 2007 and 2008. Each of these patents have been subjected to reexamination in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Reexamination Control Nos. for these patents are 90/010,144; 90/010,143 and 90/010,145. Each of the reexamined patents are currently under Final Rejection (the’ 145 was issued an Advisory Action on 12/14/09), which will likely necessitate appeals to the USPTO’s Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (“BPAI”) by FMT to overcome the Examiners’ rejections of the claims asserted in these lawsuits. FMT’s lawyers have sought a stay of the pending law suits to await the conclusions of the reexamination proceedings or in the alternative dismissal of the suits without prejudice to refile them at a later date. FMT avers that it wants to conserve judicial resources while the reexaminations of the asserted patents proceed. Zazzle.com and Scripps Networks have already filed an opposition to the motion for stay. Since judges in the Eastern District of Texas are usually reluctant to stay litigation pending the outcome of reexamination proceedings, it will be interesting to see how they rule in view of the fact that the stay is being requested by the patent owner rather than by the accused infringers.
