Meta’s Escape of Search Patent Lawsuit Undone by Federal Circuit

Meta Platforms Inc. will have to face a patent infringement lawsuit involving technology used in Facebook’s search interface, after the Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s grant of summary judgment to the social media giant.

The three judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded Thursday that Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California gave Facebook the win over MasterObjects Inc. in October 2022 after he adopted faulty interpretations of two disputed terms in the patents, which cover autocomplete search functionality. The district court also erred in applying ...