Xerox accuses Google and Yahoo of copying patents

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 24 Feb 2010 at 09:38

Xerox has sued Google and Yahoo, claiming that services offered by the web companies infringe on its patents.

According to Xerox's filing, YouTube, Google Maps, AdWords, and Yahoo Shopping transgress on a patent covering technology to "automatically generate queries based on the content of web pages to retrieve related advertisements."

The copying company is also suing for violation of a second patent that details a method of "integrating information from heterogeneous document and data sources", which it claims is used in Google Maps and Video.

We’ve been in dialogue with Google and Yahoo for some time without coming to a resolution. We believe we have no option but to file suit to properly protect our intellectual property

“We’ve been in dialogue with Google and Yahoo for some time without coming to a resolution,” Bill McKee, a spokesman for Xerox, told Bloomberg.

“We believe we have no option but to file suit to properly protect our intellectual property,” he added.

Both Google and Yahoo have vowed to fight the case. “We believe these claims are without merit and we will defend against them vigorously,” said Google in a statement.