Fast growing Canadian technology company Protus IP Solutions was victorious in a patent suit pending for the past two years in the Central District of California. U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson issued an order on November 13, 2007 dismissing the case against Protus, with prejudice (meaning the patents cannot be reasserted against Protus).
The plaintiff (Catch Curve, Inc.), a patent holding company affiliated with Protus’ competitor j2 Global Communications -- had accused Protus’ popular Internet fax services (MyFax and Virtual Fax) of infringing five Catch Curve patents.
“At the Markman hearing in May the court held that the patents do not apply to Protus’ MyFax and Virtual Fax services,” said Andrea Girones, General Counsel at Protus. “We are pleased that the case was dismissed. This is a clear victory for Protus and MyFax.”
The case was closely followed by technology and communications companies because Catch Curve had, prior to targeting Protus, licensed the patents to more than 30 companies. Protus was the first company to challenge these patents in the courts and was rewarded by a decisive victory.
“We are confident in our technology and intellectual property,” said Joseph Nour, Protus’ Chief Executive Officer. “We have developed a significant portfolio of ‘prior art’ which challenges the validity of many of the patents in this space. Our customers can confidently rely on MyFax for all of their faxing needs.”
Often, rather than incurring the high costs of defending U.S. patent cases in court, companies will opt to pay a settlement amount short of trial, even when the merits appear to be strongly in their favor. But Protus, in consultation with its U.S. patent counsel at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, decided to defend against plaintiff’s allegations in court and was rewarded with a clear win.
About Protus IP Solutions
Protus™ IP Solutions - a high-growth application service provider - offers value-added Internet fax communication and voice messaging services to businesses around the world. Since Protus was established more than 10 years ago, customers within the finance, insurance, real estate, pharmaceutical and retail industries have trusted their outsourced communication needs to our reliable service. Online Internet fax services targeting Personal, Small Business and Corporate users are sold under the brand name MyFax. Protus solutions are sold both directly and through a network of worldwide partners, including major service providers. Additional information is available at www.protus.com or www.myfax.com.