Overture suing Google, when did Overture start selling paid search?

[shorebreak]

Just read this article in the San Jose Mercury -

[mercurynews.com...]

Looks like who wins will come down to when Overture's patented paid search interface went into product.

Does anyone here go way back enough to know when GoTo/Overture first had a functioning, production DTC interface? It would have to have been prior to May 1998 to invalidate their claims against Google.

[roitracker]

Article that doesn't require registration for access:
[news.com.com...]

[webdiversity]

I don't know if the first article is the same, but the second was filed in April 2002........

[webdiversity]

From June 1998 :

[web.archive.org...]

(God bless the WayBack Machine!)

[figment88]

It is not really very surprising that a company that wantonly violates copyrights would infringe on others' patents.

I'm guessing that when the big G goes public there will be a slew of lawsuits.

[shorebreak]

Webdiversity, I saw that 5/19/98 PR as well, but it doesn't really make it any clearer when they were 'in-use'. It'd be great to hear some patent attorney opinions on this one - the stakes are nine to ten figures.