The India-based Kootol Software has sent out a notice to more than 30 companies, including Microsoft, Apple, and IBM, for violating intellectual property covered in a patent application. In other words, these 30 companies are using products and services that infringe on technology Kootol invented, but has yet to have patent approval.
“Kootol has also expressed concern that said companies may violate their intellectual property by using it for their Web sites, networks, applications, services, platforms, operating systems, and devices,” the company said in a statement. “Kootol is in the process of examining this position and the purpose of serving this notice is to bring the fact to the attention of said multiple companies at the very earliest stage so that said companies get a full opportunity to examine the matter,” the company stated in a recent press release.
The patent applications covers “core messaging, publication, and real-time searching technology and affects whole products and services.”
Kootol even sent a notice to Twitter last month alleging that Kootol had the exclusive rights to the intellectual property that allows publishing one and two way messaging, as well as subscribing to other users’ feeds. According to Kootol, Twitter infringed on Kootol’s invention. Kootol is also going after companies that make clients for Twitter, like Seesmic and The Iconfactory.
Kootol mentioned that it was open to making licensing deals, should anyone want to give-in of course.
The funny thing is, Kootol’s patent application has yet to be approved, and the company is alread sending out cease and deist notices! “By contacting potential future infringers while the patent application is still being examined, Kootol gives all of those organizations an opportunity to contact patent offices that (unlike the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) could still be persuaded to reject the application, such as the European Patent Office (which contrary to popular misbelief does grant European software patents on a daily basis),” said Florian Mueller from FOSS Patents.
