Illinois Computer Research (ICR), which filed the lawsuit last month, amended the complaint this month to include allegations that Fish & Richardson tried to intimidate a key witness in the case, specifically one of the firm’s former partners in San Diego who allegedly was fired in connection with the matter. Illinois Computer Research v. Google Inc. and Fish & Richardson, No. 07-5081 (N.D. Ill.).
The plaintiff alleges that the firm fired partner Scott Harris, who is also an inventor, because he sold patents to ICR, which then sued Google, a Fish & Richardson client, for infringing on one of those patents. Fish & Richardson also falsely claimed it owned the patent, which protects a software capability to view online a limited number of pages of a book, according to the lawsuit.
