Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/31/facetime_on_patent_troll_list/
FaceTime now on patent troll list
Apple just one of many targets
Posted in Law, 31st October 2012 22:45 GMT
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A Texas-based company, Intercarrier Communications, is lining up its lawyers against a small throng of companies over a messaging patent.
Apple is on the list, with FaceTime and Apple Messages accused [1] of infringing its patent, but the company has been far busier than that. Similar suits have been filed against Iris Wireless [2], Kik Interactive [3], as well as Viber, WhatsApp, Glimpse, TextNow, PingChat! and BroadSoft.
The Apple suit complains that the two products infringe on US Patent 6,985,748, “Inter-carrier messaging service providing phone number only experience”, which was originally assigned to TeleCommunication Systems [4].
The basis of the patent is sending text messages between different carriers (yes, The Register is well aware that this has been happening for ages): “Short messages may be sent to a subscriber in another carrier’s network addressed only with a phone number”, the abstract [5] states. “If the recipient is outside the sender’s carrier network, the Inter-Carrier messaging module of the Inter-Carrier service provider (ICSP) determines the appropriate carrier for the recipient … and routes the short message to the destination carrier.”
The Justia blog reports [6] that Intercarrier Communications was incorporated in April this year. ®
Links
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/111667271/Intercarriers-Communications-v-Apple
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/111582789/Intercarrier-Communications-v-Iris-Wireless
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/111583104/Intercarrier-Communications-v-Kik-Interactive
- http://www.telecomsys.com/
- http://www.google.com/patents/US6985748?printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false
- http://onward.justia.com/2012/10/31/apple-sued-over-apple-messages-and-facetime/