Investel Capital Corp., the Vancouver based investment fund that is currently suing Snapchat, requested a default judgment after the social media giant failed to respond to the allegations.
Investel and its lawyers believe they have a strong case against the owners of Snapchat, Snap Inc., and are unsure why the social media company has not responded.
“We are a bit surprised that they did not file a defence,” said Lawry Trevor-Deutsch, managing director for Investel. “It’s one of the things that was a possible outcome. We’re not quite sure what their motivation behind it is, it could be a delaying tactic.”
Teliphone Navigata-Westel holds a patent in the U.S. and Canada for technology that allows premade external content, such as pictures and animated images, to be incorporated into user-created content such as photos or videos. Teliphone Navigata-Westel still intends to launch the technology in the form of the smartphone app iFramed. The app will connect social media users to advertisers allowing people to get paid for posting pictures to social media with branded content. A large part of Snap Inc.’s revenue is derived from their GeoFilters, which the Canadian company claims is their patented technology.
The two companies have had some communication since the lawsuit was filed. Investel has provided Snap Inc. with supplementary documents and Snap Inc. has reached out to the Canadian company requesting clarification.
“Snap Inc. has asked us for some clarification but they haven’t asked us specifically what they would like to have clarified,” said Trevor-Deutsch.
Investel has also taken steps to notify the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of its patents and its priority claims. Investel says that it believes that its patent and claims should be disclosed to Snap Inc. investors as material information for any security issued by the company, as required under the U.S. Securities Act.
This is the first patent lawsuit filed by Investel, and Trevor-Deutsch said this is the first time it has experienced a patent infringement.
If Snap Inc. doesn’t file a defence, a default judgement could be made. If Snap Inc. files a defence after the delay, then the two companies would face off in court where Trevor-Deutsch says he hopes they can reach a settlement.
“We are a little confused as to why the defence wasn’t filed, because if there was in fact a defence, we would expect that it would be filed,” said Trevor Deutsch. “Hopefully we can reach some sort of settlement.”
