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BTG files patent lawsuits against Apple, Microsoft

By Reuters
San Francisco, 21 Jul 2004

London intellectual property licensing company BTG International has sued Apple Computer and Microsoft, alleging infringement of software technology patents, the company said yesterday.

BTG International is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BTG.

BTG, along with Teleshuttle and Teleshuttle Technologies, filed two lawsuits in the US District Court in the northern district of California.

One suit against Apple and Microsoft alleges infringement on Teleshuttle patents covering Web-enabled software update technologies, which are important in helping protect computer users from viruses and other Internet attacks. Both Apple and Microsoft incorporate automatic software update technology into Microsoft`s Windows and Apple`s OS X operating systems.

A second, separate, suit alleges infringement of Teleshuttle Technologies` patents by Microsoft`s active desktop and offline browsing technologies, BTG said.

BTG said the technologies in question are covered by patents held by inventor Richard Reisman, president and founder of Teleshuttle. He began his association with BTG in 1998, BTG said in a statement.

Representatives from Apple and Microsoft did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

BTG said the lawsuits are asking for unspecified damages for what it called past infringing activity and an injunction against future use of the technology.

The lawsuits come after what BTG said were delays in entering into a licensing agreement with BTG on "commercially reasonable terms".

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