A Stamford, CT-based company, WhitServe LLC, is aggressively targeting firms it believes have infringed its patents relating to the delivery of professional services over the Internet, including methods for online patent and trademark renewals. One of the targets is a prominent service provider to the legal community. Computer Packages, Inc. (CPi) of Rockville, Maryland, was recently ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay nearly $8.4 million in damages for infringing WhitServe’s patents. Legal departments that rely on CPi, of which there are many that rely on its software to track their patent portfolio and annuity payments, should be worried about the condition of their service provider.
More worrying, in a filing June 18, WhitServe sued CPi clients for alleged infringement. The complaint named General Electric, Intel and EMC Corp., as defendants, along with a number of notable law firms, including Wilmer Hale, Edwards Angell, and Brinks Hofer. The add-on case, filed in Maryland district court, is seeking substantial monetary damages as well as an injunction from further use of CPi’s products based on WhitServe’s patents.
This information came to me by email with a blog citation, June 21, 2010, at Docket Report.