Helferich Patent Licensing has a Message for Hewlett-Packard

March 30, 2010 - PRLog -- Information technology giant Hewlett-Packard has been accused of patent infringement by Helferich Patent Licensing, LLC. In the complaint, filed Thursday, March 25, 2010 Helferich accuses HP of infringing six US patents.

The patents involved were issued in 2000 and the following years, the most recent being issued in 2009. HP is accused of using technology that permits users to have formatted messages sent to their mobile devices that include “selectable identifiers”; those messages are then sent to the user’s device by SMS or MMS messages. The complaint gives the example of HP using such notifications in connection with Snapfish, a photo sharing service.

The complaint also includes nine “Subject Applications” or relevant pending applications relating to mobile wireless communication devices and the provision of media and content to those devices.

HP has offices in 170 countries all around the world and was founded in 1939. Their corporate headquarters are in Palo Alto, California. The company was ranked ninth in 2009’s Fortune 500.

Helferich claims they gave written notice to HP in May 2008 concerning the claims of their patents, as well as infringement charts that demonstrated how HP products were using their technology. In February 2010 Helferich claims to have sent HP a second letter informing them of infringement claims, which included detailed descriptions of the subject applications. According to the complaint HP “refuses to acknowledge infringement… or to agree to a license”.

HP was contacted for comment but did not respond by press time.

Patent Calls was not able to contact Helferich.

Helferich says that over twenty of the world’s largest mobile wireless communication device manufacturers and distributors have signed licensing agreements relating to the patents in this complaint.

Heferich is asking for damages with interest and costs, and for those damages to be tripled.

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