An online gaming company sued by Yahoo over instant messaging patent infringement has countersued the popular Internet portal and search engine, denying Yahoo’s original allegations and asking for that complaint to be thrown out of court.
XFire said March 10 that their counter-action also charges Yahoo’s suit was a move to drive them out of business or force them to sell or license its technology to Yahoo at less than fair market value in order to settle the suit.
Yahoo’s original action charged that a former Yahoo worker who went to work for XFire developed products infringing on Yahoo IM patents. XFire’s countersuit charges that Yahoo never sent them cease-and-desist letters before taking them to court, and the online gaming company wants unspecified damages from what they call Yahoo’s unfair business practices.
The dispute centers around XFire’s instant messaging service, which Yahoo says infringes a patent co-invented by Chris Kirmse, who later went to XFire and, Yahoo alleges, developed, tested, and offered an instant messaging product violating Yahoo’s patent—including letting gamers see if other players identified as friends or buddies were playing an online game.
Xfire, whose specialty is the multiplayer PC video game market, reported revenues under $750,000 for last year, compared to Yahoo’s $2.6 billion in 2004 revenues.
