By: Lucia Moses A Los Altos, Calif., inventor has withdrawn a patent infringement lawsuit against a dozen small newspapers, but said newspapers haven't heard the last of him.
Paul C. Heckel said he plans to refile claims against papers that allegedly violate his inventions once his company, Quickview Systems, which owns the patent, returns to good standing.
Heckel alleged in the suit, filed in January, that the papers' Web sites infringed patents covering his technologies that allow Web sites to display an abstract of a story with a link to the full story. A few papers named in the suit have since settled.
For the most part, Heckel has avoided targeting papers owned by big chains. "I'm basically a lightweight fighter," Heckel said. As it turned out, though, one of the papers named in the suit, the
Shawano (Wis.)
Leader, is half-owned by Lee Enterprises Inc. Lee's corporate counsel Greg Schermer said a patent law firm hired by Lee concluded Heckel's claim was unfounded.
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