(SAN JOSE, April 11, 2014) - Reed Smith is pleased to announce that the firm has achieved a victory for its client, Box Inc., in a closely watched case involving twelve software patents.
Judge Edward J. Davila of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has denied plaintiff Open Text’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Open Text had sought to enjoin Box from offering one of its features, “Box Edit,” to customers with more than 100 users.
In denying the Motion, Judge Davila found that Open Text, “has not demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits.” More specifically, Judge Davila found that Open Text, “has not succeeded in showing it is likely to succeed at trial on the merits of the validity issue” because, among other things, “Box has raised substantial questions concerning the validity of Open Text’s Synchronization and Groupware patents.” Moreover, the Court found that Open Text made a “weak showing of inadequate remedies at law” and that it “did not make a sufficiently strong causal nexus between the alleged harm and the allegedly infringing Box Edit [feature].” Based on this and other reasons, the Court held that Open Text “has not established that it is likely to be irreparably harmed in the absence of an injunction.” The Court also found that the balance of hardships and public interest factors favored Box.
Luxembourg-based Open Text S.A. originally filed its complaint against Box, Inc. and co-defendant Carahsoft Technology Corporation in the Eastern District of Virginia on June 3, 2013, (Civil Action No. 2:13-cv-00319-MSD-DEM), alleging infringement on twelve of its patents, allegedly relating to groupware, file synchronization and marketing dialogues. The Court granted Box’s motion to transfer the case to the Northern District of California last November.
Box, which is headquartered in Los Altos, California, provides cloud-based file sharing and collaboration services for personal, business and enterprise customers.
Reed Smith Intellectual Property partner John Bovich, who is based in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, serves as lead counsel for Box. The Reed Smith Box trial team also includes Stuart Shanus, Doyle Johnson, Addie Hilgard, Jen DePriest, Scott Baker and Jonah Mitchell.
The case is Open Text S.A. v. Box, Inc. et. al. (N.D. Cal. 5:2013cv04910).
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