In May, software giant Microsoft settled with little known company VirnetX for $200 million, after the former had been accused of patent infringement.
The patents in question covered methods for establishing Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
Microsoft now licenses the technology going forward.
This week, however, VirnetX has filed similar lawsuits against other technology companies, including Apple, Cisco, NEC and Aastra. VirnetX says each of the companies is currently violating at least one of five of the company’s patents relating to network communication.
The company is seeking monetary damages and injunctions against the products.
Without the aforementioned Microsoft settlement, the company was practically dead in the water, with a reported revenue of just $43,920 for 2009.
Result for: monetary damages
In early March, Apple sued rival smartphone maker HTC over violation of patents related to the iPhone, accusing HTC of infringing on up to 20 patents relating to the popular smartphone’s hardware and user interface.
Today, HTC has counter-sued, claiming that Apple is infringing on five of their own patents.
The device maker is asking the International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt all sales and import of the Apple iPhone 3G/S, iPad and iPod Touch.
Says HTC in a press statement: “As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible. We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.”
From their end, Apple is looking for monetary damages and an injunction that would block HTC from selling most of their smartphones in the U.S.
Result for: monetary damages
Melissa Ferrington and Cheryl Schmidt of California have sued the Internet security company McAfee this week, claiming that subscribers were “duped” into purchasing third-party services. They also claim credit card information was passed on to other firms without consent.
The suit has the possibility to go class-action, and the women are asking for monetary damages.
Going into more detail, the women describe that after purchasing McAfee software, a pop-up emerges with a giant “Try It Now” button.
“The pop-up, mimicking the look of the other pages on the McAfee site, thanks the customer for purchasing McAfee software, and prompts McAfee’s customers to click a red button to ‘Try it Now’…The pop-up contains no obvious visual cues or conspicuous text indicating that it is an advertisement for another product, or that clicking on ‘Try it Now’ will lead not to the delivery of the McAfee product but rather to the purchase of a completely different product. Instead, all the visual cues suggest that ‘Try It Now’ is a necessary step in downloading the McAfee software,” reads the suit.
If you “Try It Now,” you agree to pay $5 to some company called Arpu, which specializes in “one-click” purchases through ads.
ComputerWorld uncovered McAfee’s partnership with Apru on their site: “Whenever a McAfee customer completes a purchase on McAfee.com, an ad will appear for a related product or service. Interested customers can choose to subscribe to the product or service using the billing method just entered in their recent McAfee.com purchase.This convenience to the customer streamlines the purchase flow and increases the overall conversion rate.”
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