NetRatings settles Unica patent lawsuit

NetRatings has announced the settlement of a patent infringement lawsuit that it brought last year against Unica Corporation and Unica subsidiary Sane Solutions.

The internet media and market research firm, which markets its services globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand, said that the legal resolution is the fourth settlement in its recently launched patent enforcement programme.

It is still pursuing on-demand web analytics firm Coremetrics as part of this effort.

"This lawsuit was one of the five initial infringement actions filed by NetRatings in the spring of 2005 as part of the launch of our patent enforcement programme," said William Pulver, president and chief executive at NetRatings.

"We are very pleased to have patent licensing arrangements in place with four of the five original defendants.

"We remain confident in the strength of our patent portfolio, the progress of our other infringement actions, and our overall strategy to protect our intellectual property, including our case against Coremetrics which is scheduled for trial in January 2007."

NetRatings filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sane Solutions on 22 June 2005. The complaint was amended to add Unica following its acquisition of Sane in March 2006.

Under the terms of the settlement, NetRatings has agreed to dismiss all pending legal claims against Unica and has licensed certain NetRatings patents to Unica related to the collection, analysis and reporting of information concerning computer usage and activity.

Unica joins Omniture, SageMetrics and Visual Sciences as a patent licensee under NetRatings' patent enforcement programme.