Dell and LogMeIn are the new targets of a patent-infringement lawsuit by 01 Communique Laboratory, which alleges violations of technology related to a private communication portal.
Dell and LogMeIn are the targets of an intellectual-property
lawsuit by Canadian firm 01 Communique Laboratory, which asserts the two
companies infringed on its patent for technology related to a private
communication portal. The lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court,
Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division.
The products at issue include LogMeIn Free, LogMeIn Pro2, LogMeIn Ignition
and Dell Remote Access. The patent in question is
U.S.
Patent No. 6,928,479.
"Our plan is to participate in the growth of the remote access and
communications industry by leveraging our patents," Andrew Cheung, 01
Communique's president and CEO, wrote in a
Sept. 9 statement. "We believe very strongly that competition should be
based on innovation and respecting intellectual property rights."
The patent's abstract details "a system, computer product and method
for providing a private communication portal at a first computer connected to a
network of computers." The patent application was filed in June 2000, and
the patent was issued in August 2005.
LogMeIn bills itself as providing solutions for remote control and file
sharing, among other functions. In a similar vein, Dell Remote Access allows
for remote access to users' PCs.
This patent-infringement lawsuit adds to a bevy of others filed against
major tech companies in the past few weeks. On Aug. 27,
Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen opened litigation against Apple, Google and nine
other companies he claims violated patents developed by his Interval Research
Corp., a technology incubator.
"Paul thinks this is important, not just to him but to the researchers
at Interval who created this technology," a spokesperson for Allen
told
the Wall Street Journal at the time. "We recognize that innovation has
a value, and patents are a way to reflect that."
Allen's suit did not target Microsoft,
which
nonetheless is battling a separate intellectual-infringement case filed against
it by Canadian tech firm i4i. In late August, Microsoft appealed the case
to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to overturn earlier rulings that both
Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 violated i4i's patents for custom XML. In April, a
federal appeals court rejected Microsoft's request for a multiple-judge review
of the lawsuit, which resulted in a nearly $300 million judgment.
Popular technology segments, notably smartphones, have also attracted their
share of recent litigation. Nokia and Apple have filed tit-for-tat legal
complaints against one another in 2010, alleging violations of their respective
patents;
Apple
has filed a similar lawsuit against HTC, alleging violations of patents
related to the iPhone's interface, architecture and hardware.
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