M:Metrics wins ruling in Nielsen lawsuit

After more than two years, M:Metrics had its day in court and prevailed. A court has ruled that the mobile research firm did not infringe on a patent owned by its competitor Nielsen Mobile.
The battle may be won, but the war seems far from over. Nielsen Mobile is sticking to its legal guns and says it remains confident in its claim.
Following M:Metrics petition for partial summary judgment, the court ruled that Nielsen Mobile’s claims “have been proven by M:Metrics to be either factually baseless or so highly attenuated that they fail to raise any issue of material fact,” according to the Seattle-based firm.
“All along this was a meritless suit, and I am pleased that the court concurs,” CEO Will Hodgman said. “I am thrilled that the company has managed to remain undistracted by this nuisance suit.”
Nielsen Mobile hit back at the competing firm with a statement e-mailed to RCR Wireless News.
“M:Metrics omits the central fact: that the court’s decision does not affect the majority of our claims against M:Metrics, and that the court ruled only that as a result of M:Metrics changing its software because of our lawsuit, one patent is no longer infringed,” Nielsen Mobile wrote. “What is important about this decision is that our litigation successfully forced M:Metrics to redesign their software and remove certain functionality. We view M:Metrics’ redesign effort as an acknowledgment of Nielsen Mobile’s patent rights. We do not agree with the court’s opinion on this particular claim and are confident in the overall merits of the suit. We are evaluating our options with our counsel.”
M:Metrics declined to respond to Nielsen Mobile’s renewed allegations.
In June 2006, Telephia sued M:Metrics, alleging that the company’s M:Meter platform infringed on Telephia’s ‘011 patent titled “System and Method for Measuring Wireless Device and Usage Performance Metrics.”
Telephia was acquired by Nielsen earlier this year.