Vilox Technologies LLC v. The Priceline Group Inc et al DC

Vilox Technologies LLC, a Texas-based NPE managed by inventor Joseph De Bellis, has filed suit against MindGeek (2:16-cv-01278), accusing the company of infringing three patents (6,760,720; 7,188,100; 7,302,423) that generally relate to online, “on-the-fly” searching, where queries can be modified during the query using certain categories or keywords. At issue in the MindGeek complaint is the search functionality offered on several of the company’s websites, which offer various types of adult content.

Inventor-controlled Vilox Technologies LLC filed its first wave of infringement suits, hitting Expedia (2:15-cv-01457), Foot Locker (2:15-cv-01458), Orbitz (2:15-cv-01459), Priceline (2:15-cv-01460), and TripAdvisor (2:15-cv-01461). In five separate complaints, Vilox asserts different combinations of a group of four patents related to “on-the-fly” search methods; that is, searches that can be refined by certain categories or keywords at any point during the query (6,760,720; 7,188,100; 7,302,423; 7,574,432). Vilox alleges that the search features of the defendants’ websites infringe the patents-in-suit.