Meta, LinkedIn, Twitter Face Patent Suits for Site Architecture

Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., and several other companies operating large online social networks were accused of infringing two of Patent Armory Inc.'s computer integrated telecommunications patents in a series of federal lawsuits filed in two states.

Patent Armory sued Meta and Microsoft in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas on Thursday, accusing some of the largest technology companies in the US of developing and selling features for their respective social networks, Facebook and LinkedIn, which infringe on the plaintiff’s exclusive right to commercialize its patented routing and data-matching systems.

In four additional lawsuits filed the same day in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, Patent Armory accused Quora Inc., Reddit Inc., Snap Inc., and Twitter Inc. of the same infringing behavior.

The complaints point to features, like Facebook’s use of a natural language model to provide users alternate target resources after a search, in order to allege that each company has used claimed limitations in US Patent Nos. 8,831,205 and 10,237,420.

Judge Alan D. Albright was assigned the Meta and Microsoft cases. A judge hasn’t yet been assigned the Delaware cases.

The defendant companies didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

Isaac Rabicoff of Harrison, N.Y., represents Patent Armory.

The case is Patent Armory, Inc. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., W.D. Tex., No. 23-cv-541, complaint filed 7/27/23.