Last Friday, in a Delaware court, Xerox sued popular internet companies Google and Yahoo! over alleged patent infringements.

The copy company accused both Google and Yahoo! of illegally using two patents filed by Xerox in 2001 and 2004. Xerox stated that popular services such as YouTube, Google Maps, AdWords, and Yahoo! Shopping use Xerox-owned patents without expressed permission.

The first patent, under US patent number 6,778,979, describes “a method and apparatus for the integration of information and knowledge”, was used by YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Videos; while the second patent, under US patent number 6,236,994, explains a system of “automatically generated queries” were used by Yahoo! Shopping.

According to a press release from the “Copy Kings”, Xerox had previously attempted to contact both Google and Yahoo! in order to come to an agreement for use of their patents; however, their efforts were unsuccessful.


Written by: Robert, who runs a website about SEO