Ottawa-based Protus, which provides the MyFax Internet faxing service, said it’s successfully challenged the validity of j2’s “Systems and Methods for Managing Messages” patent, also known as European Patent No. 1,034,651.
“The European Patent Office held that, in the face of the prior art in the field, the patent lacked any ‘inventive step’ because a ‘person skilled in the art’ could achieve the claims of the patent by using ‘well-established’ search techniques,” the local company said in a statement.
It’s the latest coup for Protus since j2 first launched its lawsuit in August 2005 with the claim that the Ottawa firm’s MyFax and Virtual Fax online fax services infringed on five j2 patents. J2, whose portfolio includes rival fax service eFax, had also accused Protus of sending out junk faxes to the U.S. company’s customers.
Protus, which has been one of OBJ's Fastest Growing Companies for several years running, has also managed to derail j2’s efforts in the United States, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in July 2009 rejecting all claims of j2’s U.S. Patent No. 6,564,321 because the claims were “either anticipated or rendered obvious by prior art.”
In August 2008, Protus successfully opposed j2’s trademark application for the word “eFax” in the United Kingdom.
And before that, in 2007 Protus defeated Catch Curve, a patent holding company controlled by j2, in another patent lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The case was dismissed with prejudice.
Protus noted that j2 had previously licensed the patents to more than 30 companies, with Protus being the first company to challenge j2’s claims.
“We are taking decisive action to defend and protect our technology and intellectual property," said Protus CEO Joseph Nour. "This latest declaration from the European Patent Office is further evidence that Protus's growing portfolio of prior art continues to undermine the validity of the j2 patents in this space both in the U.S. and Europe."
Protus also provides virtual business phone and e-mail marketing services.
