MySpace, Inc. v. GraphOn Corp.

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO STRIKE

This patent infringement case involves technology to enable user-generated and user-controlled content to be published and password-protected on the internet. On May 26, 2010, Plaintiff MySpace, joined by Plaintiff craigslist, moved for summary judgment, arguing that Defendant’s patents-in-suit are invalid as anticipated and obvious. Specifically, Plaintiffs argued that by April 1994, Oliver McBryan, a professor at the University of Colorado, had a system called the Mother of all Bulletin Boards up and running on the University’s servers that provided nearly identical functions to those asserted in the patents. On August 3, 2010, Defendant filed a motion to strike McBryan’s opinions.

This matter was reassigned to this Court June 10, 2010. The Court held a hearing on these motions on October 1, 2010. The parties filed supplemental briefs as requested by the Court on October 12, 2010. For the reasons stated at the hearing and in this Order, Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment is granted, and Defendant’s Motion to Strike is denied.

Background

In the early 1980’s, desktop…