RazDog Holdings sues Twitch for alleged patent infringement on slide tool software

RazDog Holdings LLC is suing Twitch Interactive, according to court documents filed on June 17, 2024, in the Northern District Court of California. The lawsuit accuses Amazon's popular streaming platform of infringing on RazDog's patent rights on software technologies, which have to do with swipe-scrolling and slide tools on desktop websites that give them smartphone feel.

The complaint alleges that Twitch's live video carousels infringe on two of RazDog's patents related to technologies that they developed, called CloudMotion and CloudSource. For the alleged infringement, RazDog is asking for adequate compensation in royalty, along with pre- and post-judgment interest. The amount is to be determined during the trial if the authorities choose to proceed.

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Twitch vs RazDog lawsuit explained

Post by esports professional Zach Bussey (Image via @zackbussey/X)

As mentioned earlier, the lawsuit was filed over two patents by RazDog Holdings, namely - U.S. Patent No. 9,729,658, and U.S. Patent No. 10,334,068.

The first one was filed back in 2011 and is called "System For Managing Web-Based Content Data and Applications." The second dates back to 2017 and is titled "System For Managing Web-Based Swipe Module Tool And Software For Scrolling And Paging Through Content Data And Applications."

Both software patents have to do with swipe and slide tools on web pages, and RazDog Holdings is arguing that Twitch infringed on them with some of the features present on its website.

Without going into much detail, the court documents indicate that the slide tool on the live video carousel that appears on the front page of Twitch is an example of infringement.

Below is a picture of the front page with the slide tool (the arrows are highlighted in red).

The sliding tools on the main page (Image via Twitch.tv)

There are other features and tools used on the Amazon-owned website, such as the Twitch Video System, that have also been mentioned in the lawsuit as infringements on RazDog's patents. As far as the complaint goes, any feature that uses "carousels and a remote tool box" is damaging to the plaintiffs.

Here is a relevant section from lawsuit that summarizes the situation:

"These services and features, as well as other implementations of the Twitch Video System that include carousels and a remote tool box, infringe the RazDog Patents"

As mentioned before, the amount owed in damages will be decided at trial, and official dates have yet to be announced.