j2 Global Communications, a provider of outsourced communications services – including internet fax – has filed patent infringement lawsuits against three competitors Protus IP Solutions, Captaris Inc and EasyLink Services International. As far as the UK legal market is concerned, Capartis – the company behind the RightFax network fax system – is probably the best known of the three.
According to j2, the three suits (filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas) each allege that Protus, Captaris and EasyLink violate j2 patents for "Scalable Architecture for Transmission of Messages over a Network." j2 Global says it is seeking monetary damages for past infringement, injunctive relief prohibiting Protus, Captaris and EasyLink from continuing to infringe the patents, among other remedies. In addition to these cases, j2 has pending patent infringement cases against Protus relating to various other patents before California and Canadian courts, and j2 Global has a pending patent infringement case against Captaris relating to a separate patent in a case pending in Georgia.
"j2 Global has heavily invested in internet fax and enhanced messaging intellectual property over the past decade, enabling us to deliver powerful value-added solutions to our customers," said Jeff Adelman, V-P & General Counsel of j2 Global. "These lawsuits reflect our ongoing commitment to shareholders and customers alike to protect our IP by enforcing it against companies using it without our permission."
The most aggresive response has come from Protus, who describe the lawsuit as "another meritless case by j2" and go on to suggest that j2 are resorting to litigation because sales of j2's own eFax service are being hurt by the rival MyFax system from Protus. EasyLink issued the more conservative statement that "We are looking into this complaint and taking
all measures necessary to ensure that we resolve this matter in a timely
manner."
In terms of background, until j2 had a patents infringement claim against another fax services vendor – Venali – upheld in another court, the view was that the IP rights to internet fax technology were in the public domain or at least 'FOSS' (free & open source software). And, before you think this is some kind of monopolistic shakeup of the market by j2, it is worth noting that most fax spamming services use unlicensed rip-offs of j2 technology.
In case the name sounds familiar, j2 Global are currently making big strides into the UK large law firms fax market – with several deals with top 25-sized firms already concluded and more under negotiation.
But isn't fax a legacy technology – so why outsource it? j2's argument is that it is precisely because it is a legacy technology that it makes sense to outsource – let someone else worry about supporting the infrastructure, you can still send & receive faxes to the desktop, but the firm can throw out all its old fax servers and the network cabling used to support it.
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Friday, July 11
RightFax hit by patent lawsuit
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 11 Jul 2008 15:15 BST
E-conveyancing – things we love to hate - part #2
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 11 Jul 2008 09:23 BST
It's Friday, so it's time to have more fun with the wonderful world of e-conveyancing...
Given that Gordon Brown is currently planning to put the fiscal boot in on gas-guzzling cars (he clearly hasn't heard of farmers) we've had a few interesting reports about the energy efficiency of HMRC when it comes to their quarterly liaison meetings with IT suppliers to discuss the latest developments with SDLT. • For example, why does one HMRC executive fly down from Scotland for the meetings, when usually all she says is 'nothing to report'? There are also four guys who have to travel down from Shipley to attend the meetings. Apparently this is called 'devolved government'. • And then there is the matter of lighting. Apparently these meetings take place in a Whitehall building that is lit with chandeliers – each chandelier a mass of electric lightbulbs. When one of the techies commented that this seemed a waste on electricity and hadn't HM Government heard of energy conserving lightbulbs, it was pointed out to him that they were in a listed building and so were not permitted to use a less inefficient form of lighting. Well, why should they, they are not paying the bill anyway. All of which makes an interesting contrast with the fact that just about the only part of the HIPs now to make any sense is the Energy Performance Certification (EPC) element. However over the past few weeks we've heard a number of complaints that the EPC inspection process is frequently a joke. According to one reader, who also happens to be in the e-conveyancing software business, when the inspector called, he showed zero interest in the building's new loft and cavity insulation and "seemed to base his evaluation entirely on the number of stand-by lights he could see illuminated on electrical appliances". Hmm, wasn't he supposed to be inspecting the energy performance of the building rather than the power using habits of the individuals inside it? • Next time we'll be looking at the software antics of the HMLR and HMRC and how they caused our American cousins' jaws to drop. Thursday, July 10
Adding a pictorial element to Land Registry plans
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 10 Jul 2008 08:56 BST
Although we do not usually carry new product announcements in the Orange Rag, we are making an exception here, as you need to see the picture – see below – to really understand the significance.
Getmapping (a leading provider of aerial photography and digital mapping) has launched Aerial Insight – a new online service that delivers Land Registry title plans, aerial photography, plus a composite of the two, within one day of purchase. The service is expected to appeal to conveyancers, lenders and property portfolio managers as Aerial Insight provides crucial information about a property and its surroundings that a plan alone cannot. Although a Land Registry title plan shows the extent of a property in the context of a map of the local area, it is difficult to ascertain any other details. By providing an aerial photograph of the same area and a composite with the title plan superimposed on top, it is possible to see many details that a title plan cannot display. The composite image will enable the viewer to see property boundaries, which can help with boundary disputes or identify little strips of private land, which might prevent access to the highway or additional land suited for development. Often referred to as ransom strips, these are retained by landowners and developers who wish to control or profit from future use for access. “The real value of Aerial Insight is that it can reveal the true nature of the area, in which the property is situated,” said Tristram Cary, managing director of Getmapping. “The image composite will reveal the nature and character of the property and its surroundings and more importantly provide conveyancing professionals with the ability to spot potential problems or legal issues. It will also prove useful to those marketing the property as buyers will be interested to know whether a property is in a leafy suburb, set in rural farmland or close to an industrial site.” Aerial Insight is available from the Getmapping website, delivered by email as a layered PDF file. Of course it is unfortunate that the service has been launched in the middle of a conveyancing recession – but there again it is probably more important than ever to ensure you are not buying a pig in a poke. www.getmapping.com  The photo shows, from right to left, the Land Registry title plan, the aerial photograph and the composite. Of particular note are the close proximity of the A303 (bottom left), six bungalows opposite the property not shown on the title plan and the garage associated with the property (bottom right) including the access area in front for which the selected property has responsibility. Wednesday, July 9
Metastorm turning to social media
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 09 Jul 2008 12:39 BST
It's always interesting to see how different legal IT vendors approach marketing – and in particular how they embrace newer technologies and media. So, hats off to BPM and workflow specialists Metastorm, who have just launched a new season of Metastorm Customers Speak Out testimonials and extended market education content (there are 10 episodes in total) that includes audio and video content for iPod, iTunes, and YouTube users. The key element here is not only is the content free but internet users can access this information without having to register or send the company any identifying information. So relax, you can view the content free from the fear that 300 salesmen are lurking out there just waiting to pester you with endless phone calls, invites to golf tournaments etc etc.
Users can access the new content on the following links www.metastorm.com/customers www.youtube.com/metastormmedia www.itunes.com/podcast?id=277935479 Tuesday, July 8
Whitehill changes hands - again
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 08 Jul 2008 16:55 BST
Less than 12 months after Whitehill Technologies was acquired by Skywire Software, the business has changed hands again, with Oracle buying Skywire's application software operations. Although the deal is unlikely to be finalised (after securing regulatory and shareholder approvals) until later this year, Oracle are confident most of Skywire's management and staff will stay with the company.
In terms of what impact this will have on Skywire's legal market business – the answer is 'not a lot'. Although Oracle seems to have purchased Skywire primarily for its insurance industry business, the new owners say Skywire's 'customer communication management and document automation capabilities' (in otherwords the Whitehill BPM stuff) will complement Oracle's enterprise content management business. And it is also worth noting that Skywire/Whitehill currently has about 700 law firm customers (including about two-thirds of the global 250) either using Whitehill software directly or indirectly through an OEM deal with Thomson Elite* so Oracle is unlikely to risk upsetting this customer base. In the UK, the systems house Saturn 27 says that as of yesterday it was still business as usual in terms of their reseller and consultancy partnership relationship with Skywire, which largely focuses on the Whitehill One system for law firms. * Firms running the Elite Enterprise product Document Studio to create their bills are in fact using an OEM version of Whitehill's software. There are also unconfirmed reports that a similar OEM deal is on the cards for 3E. Monday, July 7
Wasting paper - and time - in the legal world
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 07 Jul 2008 15:55 BST
We've got some new data come in from EMC Documentum (who are obviously very happy that Linklaters continue to use their systems) about the amount of time & effort law firms waste looking for information (when they presumably do not have a Documentum system at their disposal). Joking aside, these figures (which echo earlier research on the subject) do reinforce the view that most firms would run more efficiently – and their lawyers get home earlier on an evening – if they just had better filing systems. (And that's without even getting into the whole 'green' debate.)
According to the research... • The legal industry lives up to its stereotype of printing and photocopying more sheets of paper per day than office workers in other industries • Those in the legal sector (37%) are more likely than those in all other industries questioned (21%) to spend over half an hour a day searching for paper copies of emails or other documents • The legal industry (25%) is also more likely than those in any other industry interviewed (11%) to print in excess of 100 pages in an average a day at the office. This equates to an average of 107 pages printed in the legal industry and an average of 54 pages in all other industries monitored. Those in the legal industry are also more likely than others to print over fifty pages (51% vs. 24%) • 63% of fee earners spend more than 30 minutes looking for emails or other electronic documents • 1 in 15 spend an hour or more looking for paper documents • 78% print at least 26 pages a day • 53% photocopy at least 26 pages a day
And you can vote for Peter Birley as well
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 07 Jul 2008 11:52 BST
Peter Birley, the director of IT at Browne Jacobson has also been nominated in Computer Weekly's blog of the year awards – in his case in the CIO & IT Directors sub-category. To vote for him, just click on the Vote for Me button in the righthand column and select his blog from the CIO & IT Directors pull-down menu. And, of course, when you've done that, you can also vote for the Orange Rag in the IT, Law & Governance category.
Sunday, July 6
The weekend quiz
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 06 Jul 2008 15:41 BST
This
car belongs to a well-known character with the UK and US legal IT
industry. Who is it? And, for an extra point, what is happening in this
picture? And no, it is not Insider editor Charles Christian's jeep – his
is blue and, besides, he doesn't do boaty things. No prizes save for the smug
feeling that you know more than anyone else.
Friday, July 4
More goodbyes within the Lexis tech empire
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 04 Jul 2008 07:14 BST
While the focus within the UK legal IT industry is on the number of CVs being circulated by the remaining denizens of Chateau Despair in Leeds – aka the offices of LexisNexis Visualfiles – we're grateful to our friends at Australasian Legal Technology (www.auslegal.com) for the following items...
• Paul Wyatt joins the ranks of those moving on from LexisNexis Visualfiles. Paul joined Visualfiles in 1998 spending eight years with them in the UK, before becoming their Australian Business Development Manager in 2006. His new role is as the NSW Business Development Manager with Law In Order who specialise in litigation document management, e-discovery and document copying and scanning. • In another episode of legal technology musical chairs Andrea Foot (the person responsible for bringing Axxia to Australia) has left LexisNexis and moved across to Billback, with a job title of General Manager - Australasia Sales. (Prior to joining Visualfiles – or Solicitec as it then was – Wyatt was with Linetime. Prior to moving to Australia, Foot was with Miles 33 and ITNET among others. Prior to becoming the home of Visualfiles, part of the building in Leeds housed the Headingley 10-pin bowling alley. We're sure there is a joke in there but we can't think of it.) Thursday, July 3
Vote, vote, vote for The Orange Rag blog
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 03 Jul 2008 09:36 BST
We've just been shortlisted for an award in Computer Weekly's IT Blog Awards – so vote, vote, vote for The Orange Rag now. Just click on the Law Blogs link in the button ad on the right-hand column of this page & you will be taken the voting page. We are listed in the IT, Law & Governance sub-section and can be selected from a pull-down list. Voting runs throughout July.
And our thanks to Simon Price of Recommind for pointing out we'd been nominated – there again he is in the knowledge & information management business so he ought to know these things. |
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