Google Chromium and Red Bend Ltd.'s alleged infringement of
U.S. Patent # 6546552
Robert N. M. Watson
rwatson at FreeBSD.org
Thu Mar 11 12:45:32 UTC 2010
On Mar 10, 2010, at 8:40 PM, Justin T. Gibbs wrote:
> Late last week, the FreeBSD Foundation received a cease and desist letter
> from Red Bend Software. In summary, they request that the we cease any
> and all distribution of files that are claimed to infringe Red Bend's U.S.
> patent covering a compression scheme used in software updates. The letter
> lists as examples several versions of the Chromium distribution for Gentoo
> Linux that appear on a FreeBSD mirror site (ftp2.es.FreeBSD.org). I've
> attached a scan of the letter for your reference.
>
> This letter is mis-targeted for several reasons: the FreeBSD Foundation
> doesn't own or operate all of the machines in the FreeBSD mirror network
> and the software in question was not developed by or for us. Our response
> will say as much and I do not expect any further difficulty for the FreeBSD
> Foundation in this matter. However, I believe that Red Bend will quickly
> move on to contacting individual mirror sites that are hosting these files.
> For this reason, I urge mirror site administrators to become familiar with
> Red Bend's complaint, determine if your system is distributing allegedly
> infringing software, and then to decide the appropriate action for your
> circumstances.
>
> For developers, I know that some of you may be involved with or considering
> work on Chromium. I urge you to also become familiar with this issue and
> take any necessary steps to protect yourself from liability or the risk
> of a costly (even if frivolous) lawsuit. Until this patent issue blows
> over, you should also consider the inclusion of Chromium in the FreeBSD
> ports tree, or in any other way into the standard FreeBSD distribution,
> as off limits.
As Justin's e-mail appears to have clogged the FreeBSD.org e-mail system, I've attached an OCR'd version of the letter. Reference should be made to the original scan for any matters of importance, as I cannot guaranteed the accuracy of the plain text rendition. Despite the fact that we believe this is a mis-targeted letter, we need to handle this legal matter with caution, due care, and professionalism.
Robert
---
Red Bend Software
Febmary 25, 2010
BY FEDERAL EXPRESS
Justin T. Gibbs
President, Board of Directors
The FreeBSD Foundation
P.O. Box 20247
Boulder, CO 80308
303-554-9620 p. 1
Re: Red Bend Lld.'s U.S. Patent No. 6,546,552
Dear Mr. Gibbs:
With concern and urgency, we write to advise you that the FreeBSD
website (www.freebsd.org), which is controlled and operated by The FreeBSD
Foundation(1), and specifically its use and/or distribution of Courgette
delta-update software derived from Google's Chromium open-source browser
project, infringes our U.S. Patent No. 6,546,552 (copy enclosed).
Consequently, we request that The FreeBSD Foundation immediately cease and
desist from using and inducing others' use of such infringing software, and
particularly that it cease provision and publication of the Courgette
delta-update software, including, but not limited to, the copies included in
these publicly-available files:
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.249.43.tar.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.251.0.tar.bz2
• bttp:/Iftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.260.0.tat.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.266.0.tar.bz2
• bttp:l/ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.288.1.tar.bz2
• hltp:/Iftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.295.0.tar.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.302.2.tar.bz2
• htlp:l/ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-4.0.302.3.tar.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.orgtgentoo/distfiles/chromium-5.0.307.1.tar.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.orgtgentoo/distfiles/chromium-5.0.307.5.tar.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-5.0.307.7.tar.bz2
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-S.O.307.9.tar.bz2
(1) http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/about.shtml
Red Bend Ltd. 4 Hacharash St., Neve Ne'eman B-IZ, Hod Hasharon 45240, Israel
Phone: +972-(0)9-761111 Fax: +972-(0)9-7611112 E-Mail: info at redbend.com
• http://ftp2.es.freebsd.org/gentoo/distfiles/chromium-5.0.322.2.tar.bz2
Although perhaps Unknown to you, Red Bend is the world's leading
provider of electronic software distribution technology designed to
dramatically reduce the size of software update files, accelerating delivery
to end-users, while using minimal bandwidth. Red Bend's patented
delta-update teclmology has been widely adopted in the market, and has been
used both in internet-delivered update environments (e.g. AOL's ICQ), and in
firmware over the air (FOTA) implementations. For example, Red Bend's FOTA
solution is used in more than 620 million mobile devices by eight of the top
10 handset manufiu:turers, including Nokia, Samsung, Kyocera, LG Electronics,
Motorola, Sharp, Sony Ericsson and ZTE, as well as dozens of other leading
companies in the mobile, M2M and WiMAX markets. Founded in 1999. Red Bend is
a privately held, venture capital-financed company with offices in China,
Israel, Japan, Korea, the U.K. and the U.S.
As I'm sure you appreciate, attaining this level of achievement has
not been easy or quick. We, over the last decade, have committed an enormous
amount of resources to our research and developmcot efforts, and to
protecting such efforts and our cutting-edge technology by, in part,
perfecting our intellectual property rights, including the patent identified
above, and various pending patent applications. We respect others'
intellectual property and we expect others -- especially an accomplished
company like The FreeBSD Foundation -- to respect ours. (In this regard, we
were forced to bring a lawsuit against Google for its use, posting and
distribution of Courgette; the case is now pending in Boston.)
We appreciate that The FreeBSD Foundation may need a few days to investigate
and consider our claim, but time is ofthe essence. We must act quickly to
eliminate any harm The FreeBSD Foundation's use and free distribution of our
technology will cause Red Bend. Therefore, we need to hear back from you
within the next five (5) business days. If you would like to schedule a
meeting to discuss the issues raised in this letter, please let me know.
Thank you for your expedited attention to this matter. I look forward to
hearing from you within the next few days.
Very truly yours,
Yoram Salinger
Red Bend Ltd. 4 Hacharash St., Neve Ne'eman B-IZ, Hod Hasharon 45240, Israel
Phone: +972-(0)9-761111 Fax: +972-(0)9-7611112 E-Mail: info at redbend.com
More information about the freebsd-hubs
mailing list