Vancouver’s WebTech Wireless Inc. (TSX:WEW) announced Monday it had reached a settlement with a U.S. company suing it for patent infringement.
South Carolina-based Innovative Global Systems LLC (IGS), a non-practicing entity that has targeted a number of tech companies in the past for patent infringement, is known pejoratively as a “patent troll.”
WebTech and its U.S. subsidiary, which make GPS-based vehicle tracking and fleet management systems, were two of five defendants named in a suit filed February 17 by IGS in a U.S. district court.
It was alleged that the defendants infringed on numerous patents IGS owns related to methods and apparatuses used to communicate data between heavy-duty trucks and a remote location.
In the agreement announced Monday, IGS agreed not to proceed with its current patent infringement action against WebTech. No settlement payments or future royalties are required under the terms of the agreement.
WebTech made a one-time payment of an undisclosed sum last January to settle with another U.S. company that had sued it for patent infringement.
When asked in March why WebTech has been involved in at least four patent infringement suits in recent years, WebTech president and CEO Scott Edmonds said the company is a victim of its own success.
“We’re at the forefront of a lot of technological development, and we’ve been quite successful in a lot of different markets,” said Edmonds. “So that raises your profile.”
Learn more about WebTech’s previous battles with patent trolls in BIV (“WebTech Wireless Inc. in another patent infringement legal wrangle” – issue 1064; March 16-22, 2010)