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Vringo
Vringo Logo
Company typePublic
Traded asNasdaq: VRNG
IndustryConsumer electronics
Telecommunications
Video ringtones
Founded2006
HeadquartersNew York City Edit this on Wikidata, United States Edit this on Wikidata
Key peopleAndrew Perlman (CEO)
Donald E. Stout (Director)
Ashley C. Keller (Director)
H. Van Sinclair (Director)
Websitevringoip.com/cgi-bin/index.pl

Vringo is a technology company. The company won a 2012 intellectual property lawsuit against Google, in which Google was ordered to pay 1.36 percent of US AdWords sales. The ruling was overturned on appeal, in August 2014, in a split 2-1 decision that Vringo is now appealing to the United States Supreme Court. The number of intellectual property suits filed by the firm has led some commentators to refer to the firm as a patent troll.

History

Vringo was founded in 2006 by Israeli entrepreneurs and venture capitalist Jonathan Medved and mobile software specialist David Goldfarb. The company was initially funded by private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 2007. By December 2009, it had raised $14 million in funding. Vringo priced its initial public offering on June 22, 2010, and raised $11 million.

On March 14, 2012, Vringo entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Innovate/Protect, an intellectual property company founded by Andrew Kennedy Lang, the former chief technology officer at Lycos, and Alexander R. Berger, a former Vice President at Hudson Bay Capital. At that time, Andrew Perlman replaced Jonathan Medved as CEO. On April 13, 2012, billionaire investor Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and "shark" investor on the television series Shark Tank, disclosed a 7.4% stake in the company. The merger with Innovate/Protect was completed on July 19, 2012, with Mr. Lang joining Vringo as chief technology officer and Mr. Berger as chief operating officer. Innovate/Protect director Donald E. Stout, the president of NTP holdings, which collected $612.5 million from BlackBerry-maker RIM, joined the Vringo board of directors in connection with the merger. Vringo's head of licensing, litigation and intellectual property is David L. Cohen, who was formerly an in-house lawyer at Nokia.

The company was invited to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on August 1, 2012, to mark the successful completion of the merger. In August 2012, the company raised $31.2 million to buy 124 patent families relating to telecommunications and infrastructure technology from Nokia Corp. The 124 patent families comprise over 500 patents and applications including 110 issued patents in the US. Over 45 patents families have at least one patent in force in various European jurisdictions. In an October 2012 common stock offering, Vringo raised an additional $45 million.

Google Litigation

Through its merger with Innovate/Protect, Inc., Vringo acquired ownership of patents that had been purchased from Lycos, Inc. and were asserted in a patent infringement lawsuit against AOL Inc., Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned IAC Search & Media, Gannett Co Inc. and Target Corp. The lawsuit went to trial on October 16, 2012, in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division.

On November 6, 2012, a jury ruled in favor of Vringo's wholly owned subsidiary, I/P Engine, and against the defendants with respect to defendants' infringement of the asserted claims of the patents. After finding that the asserted claims of the patents-in-suit were both valid, and infringed by Defendants, the jury found that reasonable royalty damages should be based on a "running royalty", and that the running royalty rate should be 3.5%. On November 20, 2012, the clerk entered the Court's final judgment. I/P Engine presented evidence at trial that the appropriate way to determine the incremental royalty base attributable to Google's infringement was to calculate 20.9% of Google's U.S. AdWords revenue, then apply a 3.5% running royalty rate to that base. The ruling was upheld on appeal by a U.S. District Court in January 2014.

Vringo has drawn criticism over some of its litigation tactics, with the target of at least one lawsuit accusing the company of acting as a patent troll. A Google spokesperson said on January 22, 2014, that the AdWords case "further highlights the mischief trolls can make with the patent system" and indicated that a further appeal of the ruling was likely.

On August 15, 2014 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a 2-1 majority decision reversed the lower federal court decision concerning the patent infringement lawsuit filed against Google et al. The presiding Circuit Judges concluded that I/P Engines search patents were "Obvious" and therefore unenforceable upon the defendants. Intellectual Asset Magazine called the decision "the most troubling patent case of 2014," and said the appeals court's decision "should be of huge concern to all patent owners in the US."

Vringo is currently preparing a request to have the United States Supreme Court review the appellate court's controversial decision. Vringo has hired David Boies to file a petition for writ of certiorari. Boies said, "The Federal Circuit`s conclusion that these patents aren`t valid cannot be reconciled with the fact that eight different examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the jury that heard evidence in this case for over two weeks, the U.S. District Court judge who presided over the trial, and the dissenting judge at the Federal Circuit all concluded that the patents are valid and should be upheld."

ZTE Litigation

Vringo has also filed lawsuits against ZTE Corporation and many of its subsidiaries over failure to take a license to telecom infrastructure patents that Vringo acquired from Nokia Corporation and Alcatel-Lucent. Vringo brought the first case on October 8, 2012, in the UK. The company filed a second lawsuit against ZTE in Germany on November 15, 2012, and a third, also in the UK, on December 5, 2012. On November 28, 2014, the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom found that ZTE infringed the asserted patent, which relates to 3G and 4G infrastructure equipment, and also confirmed that the asserted patent was valid as amended. The UK court later ordered ZTE to pay Vringo's costs.

Vringo products

Vringo develops and distributes mobile products and platforms. Since launching its first social video apps in 2007, Vringo's technology offerings have been contracted and distributed by business partners around the globe, including mobile handset manufacturers, Tier 1 operators, brands and content partners. These products range from video ringtone products to fan loyalty and branded video remix experiences, and most recently the Facetones™ social calling app.

Vringo's commercial agreements include subscription-based services with Verizon in the USA, Everything Everywhere Ltd. in the UK, Tata Docomo in India, as well as the two largest carriers in Malaysia and the two largest carriers in the UAE. Vringo's mobile video apps have been branded, customized, and preloaded under contracts with handset manufacturers, including Nokia and Android. Vringo published an iOS app for Heineken in 2011 and produced the exclusive mobile content app for Star Academy 8, a pan-Arab televised talent show.

Vringo has agreements with major content partners and media channels such as Marvel (USA), RTL (Europe), Hungama (India), Warner Music (Asia) and EMI (UK).

The company has more than 200,000 subscribers and an estimated three million users have registered or downloaded one of the mobile products in the Vringo portfolio.

Awards

  • Global Telecoms Business Wireless Network Infrastructure Innovation Award for launch of the world’s first paid video ringtone service
  • Chosen by AlwaysOn as an “OnMedia Top 100 Winner”
  • Sony Ericsson Special Recognition Award Winner: “Best Use of Phone Functionality”
  • MIPCOM Mobile and Internet Award winner: “Best Mobile Service for Social Community & User Generated Content“

References

  1. ^ http://finance.yahoo.com/news/vringo-seek-supreme-court-review-172901618.html
  2. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/after-years-of-hype-patent-troll-vringo-demolished-on-appeal/
  3. Jonathan Medved on CNBC's "Street Signs" MSNBC. 14 September 2010.
  4. Sandler, Neal. "Vringo Bets on Video Ringtones". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  5. Ankeny, Jason. "Vringo raises $11 million in IPO". Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  6. Austin, Scott. "Vringo CEO Jon Medved Explains Improbably IPO". Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  7. Mason, JG. "Vringo gets IPO – got $11 million for video ringtones?". Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  8. Vringo CEO Resigns As Directors Approve Merger with Patent Troll. cellular-news. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  9. Vringo + Innovate Protect Sign Definitive Merger Agreement. VringoIP. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012
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  11. Tadena, Natalie. "Heard of Vringo? It's Mark Cuban's Newest Toy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  12. Salter, Chuck. "Meet Vringo CTO Ken Lang, The Mystery Geek At The Center Of The Google Patent Fight". Fast Company. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
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  17. Rubin, Ben Fox. "Vringo Raises $45 Million in Stock Offering Ahead of Trial; Shares Down". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  18. ^ Mullin, Joe (October 16, 2012). "Investors seek billion-dollar payday as Vringo v. Google trial begins". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  19. "Vringo Awarded $30 Million in Patent Suit". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  20. "I/P Engine, Inc. v. AOL Inc., Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned IAC Search & Media, Gannett Co Inc. and Target Corp" (PDF). US District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  21. "Google Loses Again in AdWords Patent Infringement Case". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  22. "Vringo Wins U.S. Patent Ruling on Google's Modified AdWords". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  23. http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/13-1307.Opinion.8-13-2014.1.PDF
  24. http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=376067be-4130-436e-9e96-833d5b6baf75
  25. Whittaker, Zach. "Vringo ZTE Butt Heads in UK Court Over Patent Claims". zdnet.com. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  26. Balachander. "Vringo Files Another Patent Suit Against ZTE". iStockAnalyst. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  27. Balachander. "Court Finds Vringo Patent Valid and Infringed by ZTE". Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  28. McCarthy, Caroline. "Vringo. Video ringtones. Get it?". CNET Crave. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  29. Reisinger, Don. "Vringo lands first carrier-led video ringtone service". CNET. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  30. Ruhfass, Michelle. "Vringo Facetones adds a face to phone calls for iPhone users". mobile burn. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  31. Ankeny, Jason. "Verizon teams with Vringo for Facetones social media videos". Fierce Mobile Content. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  32. "Vringo Partners with Everything Everywhere". Europe TMCnet. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  33. Rai, Anand. "Vringo's Video Ringtone Service Launched On Tata DOCOMO". techcircle. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  34. O' Sullivan, Cian. "Mobile video: Vringo gets 100,000 subscribers in Malaysia". GoMO News. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  35. Hawkes, Rebecca. "Du to offer Vringo mobile video service in UAE". Rapid TV News. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  36. Srivastava, Mandira. "Vringo Launches Video Rington Platform with Rotana and Nokia". Tech News TMCnet. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
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  40. EMI signs up to Vringo. CMU Daily. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
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  42. "Facetone Android App Page". Google play.

External links

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