On 3rd January 2020, Luminati (Luminati Networks Ltd.) failed to further pursue its legal action against Oxylabs in a patent case regarding alleged infringement of its two U.S. patents and settled the lawsuit.
It all started on 19 July 2018 when Luminati filed an unjustified lawsuit against Oxylabs, claiming that two Oxylabs products, specifically Oxylabs' residential proxy network service and Real-Time Crawler, allegedly infringed Luminati's patents. The lawsuit ended with the Court dismissing all of Luminati's claims with prejudice.
Patent disputes in the technology sector are fairly common, but what made this case particularly unusual was the extent to which Luminati escalated matters beyond the courtroom. Besides the lawsuit, Luminati also took further, extra-judicial actions and sent messages to other market players via private channels, informing them about the ongoing litigation. These communications appeared designed to create uncertainty among potential partners and customers, casting doubt on whether Oxylabs could continue operating without legal risk.
As a last resort, Luminati contacted Oxylabs' clients directly, suggesting that they were at risk of being taken to court if they continued their partnership with Oxylabs. This was a bold move that could have easily backfired, and in this instance, it did. But all these efforts flopped and had no effect on Oxylabs' business as all of the Oxylabs clients that Luminati contacted stayed with the company. The client retention rate throughout this period speaks volumes about the trust Oxylabs had built with its partners.
Ultimately, after an exhausting and fruitless legal fight, Luminati was left with no other rational choice than to dismiss its claims. On 3 January 2020, the parties agreed on a resolution of the case and the Court ultimately dismissed Luminati's case with prejudice. An important point to note is that Luminati agreed to resolve the case while fully understanding that it can never again assert infringement against Oxylabs' accused products on the same patents. This is a significant legal concession, effectively closing the door on any future claims related to these specific products and patents.
Oxylabs is pleased with the non-surprising outcome of the case and considers it a clear win. From the outset, Oxylabs maintained that its technology was independently developed and that the claims had no merit. The resolution confirms this position.
Oxylabs maintains that Luminati's unfair behavior is simply an aggressive attempt to strengthen market position through legal action and harassment, instead of technological innovation and best business practices. When companies compete through litigation rather than product development, the entire industry suffers. Innovation stalls, resources are wasted, and customers lose out on better solutions.
Oxylabs is not intimidated by such hostility and will continue to successfully develop its business. Furthermore, the company will continue to protect its technology and reputation no matter what, with all available remedies. This commitment extends beyond legal defense into active investment in research and development, ensuring that Oxylabs products remain at the cutting edge of the proxy and data extraction industry.
Finally, Oxylabs will always strive to ensure a fair market in which innovation thrives through legitimate competition, delivering increasingly better products and as much value as possible for its clients. A healthy competitive landscape benefits everyone: companies push each other to improve, and customers gain access to superior tools and services at competitive prices.
About Oxylabs
Oxylabs is the leading provider of premium data centre and residential proxies for high-scope web data extraction. Our mission is that everyone has the right to access big data, and we make sure it is available for all businesses, small and big alike. With decades of hands-on experience in web data harvesting, Oxylabs is in trusted partnerships with dozens of Fortune 500 companies and global businesses. Oxylabs helps its clients unearth the hidden gems of business intelligence data by not only providing state-of-the-art products but also by sharing our extensive experience and know-how with our valued partners.
More information about Oxylabs can be found at: https://oxylabs.io/about-us
Publisher media contact information
Name: Vytautas Kirjazovas
Company: Oxylabs
Website: oxylabs.io
Email: [email protected]