eBay loses a lawsuit and will pay $2.3 million to Mangosoft

$2.3 million will be paid by Skype under the lawsuit started two years ago. Back in September 2006 MANGOSOFT, INC. of Nashua, NH, a developer of internet-enabling business software solutions, announced that its subsidiary, Mangosoft Intellectual Property, Inc., had filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging patent infringement against eBay, Inc. of San Jose, California and its subsidiaries Skype Technologies SA and Skype Software Sarl of Luxembourg.

According to that complaint the defendants allegedly infringed and continued to infringe U.S. Patent No. 6,647,393 entitled "Dynamic Directory Service" in violation of one or more provisions of 35 U.S.C. section 271. The actor sought damages for willful infringement as well as injunctive relief. In the course of the court litigation eBay was ordered to pay Mangosoft $2.3 million. The case was closed on Thursday last week and under the settlement terms Mangosoft will license its software to Skype for $2.3 million and drop all claims.

Mangosoft was one of the earlier players on the Internet during the 1990s. But later it dwindled down to a one-man operation. Its stock closed yesterday at 10 cents per share. And though $2.3 million may seem a nice amount for the New Hampshire company it is unlikely to anyhow content shareholder of Mangosoft who invested $90 million in the company.