Google Suffers Legal Setback

Google Inc. is facing a legal setback as a federal court of appeals tossed out part of a lower court ruling that was in Google's favor in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by HyperphRase Technologies, LLC.

HyperphRase filed the suit in Wisconsin claiming that Google infringed on four patents that it used to create AutoLink and AdSense. The district court granted a summary judgment in favor of Google. But the U.S. Court of Appeals said that it partially upheld the summary judgment and partially vacated it and reinstated the case.

According to the appeals court ruling, Google's AdSense does not infringe on the HyperphRase patents, but it handed down a split decision on AutoLink. This means that the case must be sent back to the Wisconsin District Court and the AutoLink part of the case must be retried.