Skyline patent infringement suit agains Google Earth dismissed

Thursday, March 08, 2007 (08:15 UTC)

Yesterday evening local time, a judge at the US District Court of Massachusetts dismissed the patent infringement suit brought by Skyline Software Systems against Keyhole Inc. back in 2004. Google inherited this suit when it bought Keyhole later on in 2004. (Google Earth is the result of that purchase.)

There is one syndicated AP story out there about this, and it is a gem of concise reporting.

Implications? Not much, I think. When lawsuits demand an injunction against the use of a popular piece of technology, be it Google Earth or Blackberry, there is always a small risk of large consequences. That shadow has now been lifted for Google Earth. Just maybe, the dismissal of this suit is a prerequisite for further development or cooperation. We'll see. Also, no word on whether this is appealable.

(This is what happens when news breaks at 2am Cairo time — you sleep through it:-)

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