The Latest Information Regarding All Legal Proceedings Between Oxylabs and Luminati (now known as Bright Data)

The Court issued its claim construction[1] opinion (a so-called Markman[2] opinion), which proved to be critical for the later stages of Case No. 299. With this decision, at Oxylabs’ request, the Court invalidated one of the three independent claims of Luminati’s (now known as Bright Data) patents (Claim 108) as indefinite and issued an order construing the claims of Luminati’s patents.

Oxylabs filed its Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings[3] (a so-called Alice Motion[4]) seeking a ruling that Luminati's (now known as Bright Data) patents were invalid for impermissibly claiming an abstract idea.

Oxylabs also filed a Motion for Summary Judgment that Oxylabs did not infringe Luminati's (now known as Bright Data) patents. Both motions (i.e., Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and Motion for Summary Judgment) were pending, and if the Court had granted either of them, the lawsuit would have concluded on the merits in Oxylabs’ favor.

On December 12, 2018, in Case No. 299, Luminati (now known as Bright Data) asserted certain non-patent claims against Oxylabs. Oxylabs wrote to Luminati on September 10, 2019, and advised that these additional claims asserted in Case No. 299 were frivolous and that the continued pursuit of the claims would subject Luminati to liability for Oxylabs’ attorney’s fees. On November 4, 2019, rather than pursue these additional non-patent claims asserted in Case No. 299, Luminati voluntarily withdrew them without prejudice.

Luminati (now known as Bright Data) filed two new patent lawsuits against Oxylabs, claiming that Oxylabs’ technologies allegedly infringed on five additional patents, U.S. Patents 10,469,614, 10,257,319, 10,484,510 (Case No. 395) and 10,484,511 10,637,968 (Case No. 396). In Case No. 395, Luminati also once again asserted the same additional non-patent claims, which Luminati voluntarily withdrew in Case No. 299 back in November 2019.

During the Pretrial Conference[5] (one month before jury trial), the parties resolved Case No. 299 by settlement. Therefore, all pending motions were not resolved on their merits.

As the settlement was reached by both parties, Case No. 299 was dismissed with prejudice in accordance with the parties’ settlement agreement. An important point to note is that Luminati's (now known as Bright Data) agreed to resolve the case while fully understanding that it can never again assert infringement against Oxylabs’ accused products on the same patents.

After witnessing what we believed to be continuous efforts of Luminati's (now known as Bright Data) to mislead the market regarding Oxylabs’ products, Oxylabs sued Luminati and its investor EMK Capital LLP on the following claims: unfair competition, false advertising, false patent marking, defamation/business disparagement, tortious interference with prospective business relations, tortious interference with the existing contract, breach of contract, and conspiracy (Case No. 73).

Oxylabs filed antitrust counterclaims against Luminati (now known as Bright Data), and claims against Luminati’s investor EMK Capital LLP and Hola (Hola VPN Ltd. and Hola Networks Ltd.) in Case No. 395. The claims asserted by Oxylabs include: violation and conspiracy to violate the antitrust laws of the United States, monopolization and attempted monopolization of the residential proxy marketplace, and the filing of sham patent-infringement lawsuits against competitors, including Oxylabs. To promote fair marketplace practices, Oxylabs sought to redress the injuries it has suffered and hold Luminati, EMK Capital, and Hola accountable for their actions.

The Court issued its Claim Construction Opinion and Order, which will be critical for the later stages of Case No.395. This decision invalidated one of the patent claims asserted by Luminati (now known as Bright Data).

All parties involved in Case No. 73 agreed on a stipulation which ended the case. Therefore, all pending motions were not resolved on their merits.

Bright Data (formerly known as Luminati) and Oxylabs dismissed their non-patent claims through stipulation. Oxylabs’ antitrust claims against EMK were dismissed after the Court found that EMK could not conspire under the antitrust laws with its related entity, Bright Data.

The parties filed a Joint Stipulation and Motion to Dismiss With Prejudice Patent Infringement Claims Against Metacluster LT, UAB (the “Stipulation”). In the Stipulation, Bright Data (formerly known as Luminati) represented what acts it accused of infringement and Metacluster represented that it had not performed any such acts. Subject to the Stipulation, Bright Data moved to dismiss its claims of infringement against Metacluster with prejudice, and defendants agreed to the dismissal. Based on the parties’ Stipulation, the Court entered an Order on July 2, 2021, dismissing Bright Data’s claims against Metacluster with prejudice.

The jury issued a verdict finding certain claims infringed and not invalid. While we are disappointed in the decision, we thank the jury for their service. We note that the jury’s decision relates solely to a claim for monetary damages. Oxylabs is legally entitled to continue providing the accused services. The Court has not issued any orders related to continued use of Oxylabs’ residential proxy service. We intend to continue to pursue our positions both with the District Court and, if necessary, at the Court of Appeals. Oxylabs continues to offer its services in an uninterrupted manner.

Oxylabs has filed the lawsuit against Bright Data (formerly known as Luminati) claiming the infringement of three patents of Oxylabs. Oxylabs alleges that its competitor infringes on Oxylabs’ patents claiming Smart Proxy Rotator and web script management technologies for the provisioning of web scraping and other business services.

On February 10, 2022, the District Court entered an Order denying Bright Data’s (formerly known as Luminati) request for an injunction. The Order is available here.

The Court issued a sua sponte order staying and administratively closing Case No. 396 (concerning the alleged infringement of Bright Data (formerly known as Luminati) patents on data center IP technologies) pending any appeal and entry of a final and non-appealable judgment in Case No. 395 (concerning the alleged infringement of Bright Data patents on residential proxy technologies).

On February 28, 2023, the Court issued a sua sponte order staying the case until the ultimate resolution in each of the USPTO proceedings (i.e., IPRs and EPR) concerning the validity of Bright Data’s (formerly known as Luminati) patents that are asserted against Oxylabs in the case. A summary and the status of all of the USPTO proceedings challenging the validity of the Bright Data patents asserted against Oxylabs in Case No. 395 (i.e., patents No. 10,257,319, No. 10,484,510 and No. 10,469,614) can be found in the table below. As of today, all asserted claims of patent No. 10,469,614 stand finally rejected by the patent office (subject to the appeal filed by Bright Data to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board). Hearings considering the validity of Bright Data patents No. 10,257,319, and No. 10,484,510 are being held in February - June 2023, with the expected final written decisions of the USPTO later in 2023.

After the Court rejected Bright Data’s (formerly known as Luminati) attempt to file its patent infringement allegations as a counterclaim against Oxylabs in Case No. 011, Bright Data’s allegations were severed into a separate lawsuit (Case No. 171). In this new case, Bright Data claims that Oxylabs’ accused services infringe Bright Data’s U.S. Patent 11,206,317.

On April 28, 2023 Oxylabs filed its counterclaims against Bright Data in the newly severed case. Oxylabs accuses Bright Data of infringing Oxylabs’ U.S. Patents 7,010,526 and 7,020,667 which claim technology relating to knowledge-based data mining and data retrieval/collection.