HP, New Balance among 11 Sued for Infringing Vehicle-Tracking Patents
Orange County – ArrivalStar SA filed a host of complaints in Florida federal court on Friday, claiming that various companies, including Hewlett-Packard Co., New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. and Lacoste USA Inc. infringed patents related to vehicle-tracking technology.
ArrivalStar and Melvino Technologies Ltd., which owns the patents-in-suit and licenses them to ArrivalStar, filed a minimum of 11 lawsuits on Friday claiming that the various defendants infringed multiple patents related to technology that allows for the tracking and monitoring of motor vehicles.
Luxembourg-based ArrivalStar mostly named apparel and shoe manufacturers in its 11 lawsuits, which also included Nautica LLC, Quicksilver Inc., Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corp., and S&A Distribution Inc., which makes the Geox brand of shoes. The company also targeted trucking company Willis Shaw Express Inc., transportation company Coyote LLC, and online flight tracking services FlightAware LLC and Flight View Inc.
In the complaints against the various retail stores, ArrivalStar alleged that the companies provide various online features that allow customers to check the status of their orders online and automatically receive email updates on orders such as order and shipment confirmation. ArrivalStar claimed that these online features infringe three patents licensed to it by Melvino Technologies.
In the lawsuits against the online flight tracking service companies and the logistics companies, ArrivalStar claims that the companies have infringed six of Melvino Technologies’ patents.
All of the lawsuits claim direct and indirect patent infringement and ask for injunctions preventing the companies from infringing the patents in the future, damages, attorney’s fees and costs.
The complaint filed against Lacoste reads, “Lacoste’s direct infringement has injured and will continues to injure Plaintiffs unless and until a monetary judgment is entered in favor of Plaintiffs and/or the Court enters an injunction prohibiting further infringement.”
ArrivalStar is no stranger to filing patent infringement lawsuits. The company has been filing waves of lawsuits against various companies since at least 2003. Last October, it brought separate patent infringement lawsuits in Florida federal court against Nike Inc., Skechers USA Inc., Groupon Inc., Logitech Inc. and several other companies.
The company has filed well over 100 lawsuits in the last ten years. Most companies see ArrivalStar as a patent troll trying to extort licensing fees, but the company claims it is just trying to protect the technology licensed to it.
