Impact Engine accuses Google of copying its patented digital advertising technology
Impact Engine claims that Google's online advertising platforms have infringed six of its patents
A California-based tech firm, called Impact Engine, has accused Google of copying its digital advertising technology, infringing six of its patents
In its lawsuit filed in the US District Court in San Diego, California, the company accused Google of "brazen and wilful patent infringement" of Impact Engine's intellectual property.
Impact Engine claimed that Google's online advertising platforms, including Google AdSense and Google Ads, infringe six patents awarded to the firm between 2011 and 2018.
Those patents relate to "programmatic creative" technology for producing and customising online ads, the company claimed.
According to the complaint, Google held multiple meetings with Impact Engine's co-founders between 2005 and 2007 to talk about a partnership to incorporate Impact Engine's Programmatic Creative solutions to the Google's platform.
As a result of Google's brazen and wilful patent infringement, Impact Engine has been forced to compete against our own technology
The search giant also asked Impact Engine's co-founders to develop a prototype that would run on the Google platform.
According to Impact Engine, its co-founders shared the prototypes, source code, documents and other intellectual property with Google at that time.
Later, Google developed and launched a Display Ad Builder product, which Impact Engine says is almost entirely based on intellectual property created by Impact Engine and infringes six patents owned by the company.
"As a result of Google's brazen and wilful patent infringement, Impact Engine has been forced to compete against our own technology," Neil Greer, Impact Engine's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.
"We cannot stand by any longer and watch while one of the world's largest and most valuable companies infringes upon our IP and profits from our hard work and creative inventions.
"We are determined to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our innovations, for Impact Engine's own sake and for the sake of other young companies who might be victimised by behemoths such as Google," Greer added.
This is not the first time that Google has been accused of infringing other companies' intellectual property. In 2012, when Google launched the Nexus 7, its first own-branded tablet, Nokia alleged that the product might have infringed the patents owned by Nokia.