A software producer for mobile devices by the name of Openwave Systems Inc. has filed a complaint for patent infringement against Research In Motion and Apple, seeking to impose a ban on the imports of smartphones and tablets produced by these companies into the US.
The company’s statement released today said that the devices which included RIM’s BlackBerry Curve smartphone and the PlayBook tablet and Apple’s iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone infringe upon five of its patents concerned with the way these devices connect to the internet.
Openwave has filed cases with the Washington based International Trade Commission and also in a federal court in Delaware. Openwave, which has reported that its revenue in the quarter which ended this March was around $38.9 million, said that this lawsuit came as neither of Apple and RIM responded to the company’s request for striking a licensing deal for these patents.
The Redwood City, California based company said that the ITC is capable of imposing bans on the products which infringe on US patents, and that any favorable decision will involve the companies negotiating agreements for licensing. Ken Denman, the Openwave CEO, said that a lot of people release products in the markets which are using the patented technology of the company.
He added that the inventions of the company were the foundational features of internet usage on mobile phones and that it was only proper for other companies to pay them for using the technology. One of the Waterloo, Ontario based RIM’s spokeswoman, Marisa Conway, and Cupertino, California based Apple’s spokeswoman, Kristin Huguet, declined any comment on these litigations.
According to Denman, this compliant is just a part of the strategy being followed by Openwave to try and generate more revenue from its intellectual property and it is currently in talks with more parties; however, he declined to name these companies. Openwave is a major player in the technology market as it provides software to many providers of telecom services such as Sprint, AT&T Inc., Deutsche Telekom, Australia based Telstra Corp. and Taiwan Mobile Co.
According to a report compiled by a major research firm, around 31% of Openwave’s sales in the first quarter came from licensing deals. The patents which are in question in the complaints which were filed today concern the ways in which applications and web servers contact a server, share data across devices, update applications and connect to email in areas of no network coverage.
