CAFC Affirms Dismissal of Patent Suit Over Peer-to-Peer Tech, Citing Waiver and Judicial Estoppel

"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Tuesday affirmed a district court's dismissal of a patent infringement suit brought by Cooperative Entertainment, Inc. against Kollective Technology, Inc., over a patent for peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution, holding that Cooperative had waived its new infringement theory and was judicially estopped from contradicting its previous arguments. The dispute began when Cooperative Entertainment filed a patent infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,"

"In a previous 2022 decision, Cooperative I., the CAFC reversed the district court's initial dismissal, which was based on a finding that the patent was invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for being directed to nonpatentable subject matter. Following the remand in Cooperative I, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Kollective's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim."

The CAFC affirmed the dismissal of Cooperative Entertainment's patent infringement suit against Kollective Technology. Cooperative alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 9,432,452 covering dynamic networked peer-to-peer content distribution that supplements CDNs for large files. The CAFC held that Cooperative waived a new infringement theory raised first on appeal and was judicially estopped from contradicting prior positions. The case followed a prior Cooperative I decision reversing an initial §101 invalidity dismissal, and on remand the district court dismissed the complaint with prejudice as amendment would be futile. The patent claims require content segmentation based on traceroutes and other CDN and peer-feedback techniques.

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