NewPoint Media Group, LLC (“NewPoint Media”), filed a complaint in the Northern District of Georgia seeking a declaratory judgment against Easy Intellectual Property Licenses, LLC (“Easy IP”) declaring that NewPoint Media does not infringe software electronic advertising copyrights of Easy IP or U.S. Patent No. 8,234,174, which published on July 31, 2012 (the ‘174 Patent).

According to the complaint, NewPoint Media is headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Easy IP is a West Virginia corporation.  Jurisdictional allegations were based on assertion of copyright and patent rights in the Northern District of Georgia and licensing within Georgia for both the software and patent.  NewPoint Media provides print and digital media services, including The Real EstateBook – an online website and printed publication listing real estate properties and services.

The complaint relates that Easy IP markets software which allows customers to easily create custom advertisements, and which it claims is based on the ‘174 patent.  On March 4, 2014, Easy IP filed suit in the Southern District of West Virginia against seven defendants, including NewPoint Media, alleging infringements of software copyrights and the ‘174 patent.  The West Virginia complaint, attached as Exhibit A to the complaint asserted NewPoint had “adopted” the patented process and “imitated” the software.  Figure 3 from the ‘174 patent is reprinted below:

The West Virginia complaint was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on May 9, 2014.

According to NewPoint Media, the filing and dismissal of the West Virginia complaint has created “a substantial controversy between NewPoint and Easy IP of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment.”

NewPoint Media does not seek a declaration that the ‘174 patent is invalid or unenforceable, but only that it is not infringed by NewPoint Media.  The complaint does further seek to have the case declared exceptional resulting in an award of attorney fees to NewPoint Media.

The case is NewPoint Media Group, LLC v. Easy Intellectual Property Licenses, LLC, No. 1:14-cv-01436-WBH, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, on May 12, 2014, and assigned to U.S. District Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr.