Brief: Google Prevails In Patents Case Over Its Toolbar InterfaceBrief: Google Prevails In Patents Case Over Its Toolbar Interface

A U.S. Federal District Court judge in Madison, Wis., has thrown out patent-infringement charges filed against Google by a Wisconsin company.

HyperPhrase Technologies had maintained that four of its patents were being infringed by Google. However, Judge John Shabaz disagreed, and in a 25-page ruling granted Google's request to throw out HyperPhrase's suit, according to a Bloomberg News report Wednesday.

HyperPhrase had cited Google's toolbar interface and its AutoLink feature in the complaint.

"AutoLink performs a completely different function in a different way to achieve a different result," wrote the judge in dismissing the lawsuit. The HyperPhrase patents were issued in 1999, 2002, and 2003.