Dow Jones & Company Prevails in Lawsuit Asserting Online Technology Rights

NEW YORK, NY, July 17, 2009 -- Dow Jones & Company, a News Corporation company (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV), has prevailed in a lawsuit it brought to defend its businesses against unjustified patent licensing demands.

In a case concerning technology to personalize Web sites, a federal district court in Washington, D.C., declared two patents held by Ablaise Ltd. invalid. The court said that although Ablaise generated revenue from one of the patents “it admits that it has done so through a coercive licensing scheme that has more to do with the costs of litigation than the novelty of the patent.”

“Dow Jones vigorously fights unwarranted demands for patent licensing fees,” said Dow Jones General Counsel Mark Jackson.

In 2006, Ablaise demanded that Dow Jones pay a licensing fee to provide personalized content on Dow Jones Web sites. Ablaise claimed those features were possible only by use of its patented technology.

In response, Dow Jones filed a lawsuit against Ablaise asking the court to declare that Ablaise’s patents are invalid or that Dow Jones’s Web sites do not infringe Ablaise’s patents. The court agreed in a decision issued July 15 that the patents are invalid, saying that what Ablaise claimed it had invented was obvious or anticipated by existing technology.

Steven Lieberman of Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck represented Dow Jones in the matter.

Source: Dow Jones & Company / News Corporation