Two Irish companies have filed a slew of patent lawsuits against several US tech giants
Data Scape and Neodron are seeking damages from Amazon, Microsoft and others.
TWO RELATED IRISH companies have filed a wave of lawsuits in the US against several major tech companies alleging patent infringements.
Data Scape and Neodron have each filed cases against companies including Amazon, Apple, Dell, Dropbox and Microsoft, claiming that the companies have violated patents related to data synching and touchscreens.
At least 14 lawsuits were filed in Texas last week.
Data Scape and Neodrone, which both list their addresses in Sandyford, have the same directors as another company called Solas OLED, also based in Sandyford, which describes itself as a patent licensing operation.
Angela Quinlan, associate general counsel for Solas OLED, told Fora that Solas OLED provides services to Data Scape and Neodron.
The companies have acquired patents in the US in recent years and sought licensing agreements with several companies that they believe are making use of their patents.
In one of the lawsuits against Amazon, Neodron alleges that Amazon’s devices, such as the Fire HD 10 tablet, violate a touchscreen patent around “enhanced touch detection methods”.
This patent relates to the signals in a device that register a touch has been made on the screen. Amazon declined to comment.
“We’ve contacted the other parties (in these cases) and tried to negotiate a reasonable licensing fee,” Quinlan said.
She said these negotiations were unsuccessful and have led to these legal actions.
In each of their lawsuits, Data Scape and Neodron are seeking damages and costs.
This isn’t the first time that Data Scape has sought action against several household tech names. It has previously filed suit against Apple and Spotify with claims around data transfer functions in their services.
Quinlan would not comment on any specific cases but said that it has reached settlements in the past.
Fora contacted the other companies involved in the latest batch of lawsuits for comment. The companies had not returned any comment in time for publication.
