• by November 7, 2000

DoubleClick and 24/7 Media have settled the patent litigations pending in federal district court in Manhattan. Separately, DoubleClick and L90 have settled their patent litigation and L90's related counterclaims.

Both lawsuits will be “dismissed with prejudice," which means that none of them can re-file with the same claims.

The whole affair late began in 1999, when DoubleClick filed a suit against both L90 and Australian ad firm, Sabela Media (now part of 24.7), alleging that the two companies had violated its ad serving patent.

24/7 Media quickly filed its own lawsuit in March, 2000, accusing DoubleClick of infringing on its patent which covers an "on-line interactive system for providing content and information to a targeted set of viewers."

Shortly thereafter, Sabela Media filed another suit against DoubleClick, alleging that DoubleClick's original suit was an anti-competitive move on DoubleClick's part. On the same day, L90 also filed a similar suit the same day, alleging that DoubleClick fraudulently obtained its ad serving patent.

This week all three companies made nice with each other. As part of the settlement, 24/7 Media and DoubleClick have "granted each other certain rights in certain of their respective patents," according to the official announcement. Under the settlement agreement, no other terms of the settlement were disclosed.

Both 24/7 Media and DoubleClick declined to comment on the settlement.