The number of patent lawsuits and legal notices in the tech industry continues to increase. This week a large number of companies, including major tech firms, got served with notices that they may be in violation of a patent held by Kootol Software, an India-based company. As News.com reports Kootol claims that the rather long list of companies mentioned in Kootol's press release on Friday have violated its patent that involves "core messaging, publication, and real-time searching technology and affects whole products and service."
The list that Kootol Software mentions in its press release include Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, AOL, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Twitpic, Research In Motion, Yahoo and more. The press release added that Kootol Software was also planning to serve similar notices to "several other companies and developers". It added that "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."
But there may be a fly in the ointment in terms of Kootol proving its patent case. The web site FOSS Patents reports that the actual patent that Kootol references in the press release hasn't actually been granted to the company yet by the US Patent and Trademark Office. It adds that in sending out this notice to the various companies, Kootol may have given them time to ask other patent offices like the European Patent Office "to reject the application."
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