Hugging Face, the renowned artificial intelligence development platform, has recently reached a settlement with the South Korean AI startup FriendliAI, ending a nearly two-year patent infringement lawsuit. FriendliAI had accused Hugging Face of infringing its patent related to "iterative-level scheduling of batch processing." Both parties confirmed in documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware that they reached a "confidential agreement" on January 8 and agreed to withdraw the lawsuit.
Image source note: Image generated by AI, licensed from service provider Midjourney
According to court documents, both FriendliAI and Hugging Face agreed to waive any claims for costs and expenses related to the case, meaning that the case cannot be refiled. Although Hugging Face has not yet responded to media requests for comments, it appears that both parties are able to continue their business operations following the settlement.
Founded in 2021, FriendliAI focuses on developing AI infrastructure solutions and has an office in Redwood City, California. The company claims that its patented technology can significantly improve the data batch processing process, allowing AI systems to handle multiple requests simultaneously. Specifically, this technology not only allows completed requests within a batch to be immediately returned to users but also enables new requests to be added to the batch before the entire batch is processed.
In the lawsuit, FriendliAI accused Hugging Face's text generation inference tool's "server" component of using its patented method, resulting in infringement of its technology. FriendliAI sought damages, enhanced compensation for "willful infringement," and requested the court to issue an order to prevent further infringement or require payment of licensing fees, as well as cover legal and litigation costs.
As one of the largest AI tools and model repositories globally, Hugging Face has secured investments from multiple sources, including Google, Amazon, NVIDIA, Intel, and Salesforce, totaling $235 million. The company not only offers a variety of models and tools but also actively develops its own AI technologies and provides consulting services to help businesses optimize, customize, and deploy artificial intelligence.
In the fiercely competitive AI field, resolving patent disputes is key for companies to maintain innovation and growth. The settlement between Hugging Face and FriendliAI provides both parties with better opportunities for development and will continue to drive progress in their respective businesses.
