Judge Says He’ll Ax Finnish Inventor’s Suit Against Netflix

A federal judge in California said he’s inclined to toss a patent suit against Netflix Inc. citing a pair of decade-old Finnish court decisions that resolved a messy ownership dispute over the US patent application now being asserted.

A lawyer for Lauri Valjakka urged Judge Jon S. Tigar of the US District Court for the Northern District of California to apply California state law to determine that Valjakka, a resident of Finland, owned US Patent No. 8,495,167. The lawyer, Bill Ramey, said that Valjakka could prove ownership under a theory under Finnish common law—notwithstanding two decisions by the ...