Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
- CAFC ruled that Amazon’s Alexa did not infringe a voice technology patent owned by Freshub.
- CAFC denied Amazon’s attempt to invalidate the patent and Freshub’s allegations of anti-semitism.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has ruled in favor of Amazon in a case where Freshub claimed that Amazon’s Alexa devices infringed its voice-processing patent. The court denied Amazon’s attempt to invalidate the patent based on inequitable conduct by Freshub’s parent company. Freshub’s allegations of anti-semitism against Amazon were also dismissed by the court.
Freshub sued Amazon in 2019 for patent infringement, but a Texas jury found in favor of Amazon, stating that the shopping list feature of Alexa did not fall within the scope of Freshub’s patent. Freshub’s motion for a new trial based on alleged prejudicial statements by Amazon was also denied by the court.
The CAFC judges were not convinced by Amazon’s argument of inequitable conduct by Freshub’s parent company before the USPTO. The parties were ordered to bear their own costs in the case. Freshub was represented by Paul Andre of Kramer Levin, while David Hadden of Fenwick & West argued for Amazon.
