Recent advances in the smartphone/handheld device technology have led to a boom in the mobile device manufacturing industry. It has also given rise to a situation of patent warfare, wherein each company operating in this segment is locked in one or more patent infringement law suits with one or several rival companies. GEIPER specializes in the infringement investigation and has handled hundreds of such cases so far.
PROJECT AIM:
The aim was to assist one of our premium clients in identifying potential infringers for a US patent based that disclosed
an invention related to a wireless mobile phone device that receives data transmitted over a wireless communication link from a source computer or server. If any changes are made to the data files (e.g. emails) stored in the source computer or server (e.g. the desktop email client), it gets automatically reflected on the display unit of the mobile phone device. In other words, the paten t discloses a server with sufficient storage space to store emails, and a facility to auto update the mobile phone device (connected to the server over a wireless network) with any changes made to the emails stored in the server.
APPROACH:
Our analysts first thoroughly understood and analyzed the unique technology underlying the subject patent. The technology
was tested in GEIPER's in -house bench lab in order to obtain a better understanding of the claims of the subject patent. The team identified a clutch of mobile phone service providers who provided the facility of auto updation of emails on
the mobile hand sets. However, the real challenge was to identify a server that has the feature of auto updation, as escribed in the previous paragraph. To meet this challenge, our analysts sought assistance from a few technology experts belonging to the telecom industry, who are part of GEIPER's unique 'Circle of Experts' program, by which senior technology
experts from the industry, as well as senior IP attorney s advise our patent analysts about the nuances of technology and IP management respectively. Based on their advice, it was found that even a mobile phone device can be treated as a server. Based on this analysis, potential infringers in relevant geographie s were identified and the features of their products were mapped with the claims of the subject patent. Several large mobile phone makers and service providers were found to be potentially infringing on the subject patent. Claim charts with annotations were prepared to exhibit this analysis in a cogent and lucid manner.
CLIENT BENEFIT:
The scale and depth of our analysis and the presentation of the investigation report were greatly appreciated by the client.
The client has decided to bring an infringement suit, which it is confident of winning.
