By Victoria Slind-Flor
Bloomberg - November 27, 2013
MotionPoint Corp., a maker of technology that translates business websites into foreign languages for customers such as Victoria’s Secret Stores LLC and Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), failed to persuade a judge not to block sales of its core product. The ruling came in a patent-infringement lawsuit brought in June 2010 by New York-based TransPerfect Global Inc., a MotionPoint competitor whose customers include Home Depot Inc. (HD) and American Airlines, Inc.
A federal jury in Oakland, California, found in July that MotionPoint directly infringed a TransPerfect patent and should pay $1 million in damages. TransPerfect then sought a permanent injunction barring the sale or use of MotionPoint technology that directly or indirectly infringes the patent.
MotionPoint, which provides translation services for more than 1,800 websites, said in a court filing that a broad injunction might deny millions of foreign-language speakers access to translated versions of its customers’ websites.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granted TransPerfect’s request for an injunction on Nov. 15. She stayed MotionPoint’s compliance with the order until she rules on all of the companies’ post-judgment motions.
Counsel for both parties sent Wilken a letter Nov. 25 saying they agreed on a private mediator to conduct court-ordered talks. They chose Wayne D. Brazil, a former magistrate judge from the San Francisco federal court now working for Irvine, California’s Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services Inc. The case is TransPerfect Global Inc. v. MotionPoint Corp., 10-cv-02950, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).