Pragmatus AV, LLC is suing three well-known social media companies – Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn (News - Alert) – in federal court on charges of patent infringement, according to court records. Photobucket.com is another defendant in the case.

Among the claims made in the lawsuit is that the defendant companies have systems and services that “allow users to upload, link to, and comment on videos.”

Pragmatus, which is reported to be a newer company based in Virginia, says it has suffered and will continue to suffer damages from the infringement. The specific amount of damages will be proven at trial, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff’s case mentions three patents that relate to the storage, accessing and playing of media files.

The patents “were originally held by Avistar (News - Alert) Communications, which sold most of its patent portfolio to Intellectual Ventures in January for $11 million,” according to a report in Yahoo Finance. “In June, IV sold them to Pragmatus AV.”

The case was filed in the Virginia Eastern District Court. It was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, and referred to Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson.

It is becoming increasingly common for patent infringement suits leveled against successful social media sites, as well as search engines. For instance, TMCnet’s Erin Harrison reported earlier this year that Google (News - Alert) and Facebook were being sued by Winksite over mobile social networking technology.

In an industry-related trend, one common practice by a non-practicing entity (NPE), or more crudely known as patent trolls, is suing aggressively with no real intention of ever manufacturing the product. As of April 1, 2010, an advocacy group known as PatentFreedom said it had identified over 325 NPEs. NPEs since 1985, have been involved in litigation against about 4,500 different companies in over 3,100 court actions, according to PatentFreedom. The group added that some 75 percent of the patent lawsuits between the NPEs and the companies were filed since 2003.

Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf