Venali Sues j2 for Patent Infringement

From http://www.venali.com/about/pr/patentLawsuit1206.php:

Venali, Inc. today announced it has filed a lawsuit against j2 Global Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM) for infringement of its Premium Messaging Patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,114,004). Venali is seeking damages and to permanently restrict j2 from further infringement of the patent. The suit was filed in federal court in Miami Florida.

Venali was awarded the Premium Messaging patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in September of 2006. The technology allows for automatic routing of digital messages of all types based on recipient preferences or technical capabilities of the recipient’s system.

This is the second lawsuit Venali filed against j2. The previously filed lawsuit was focused on several of j2’s actions that Venali claims violate U.S. anti-trust laws.

“ Venali is determined to protect its interests against a competitor that has chosen to employ methods of unfair competition rather than competing on the merits of the service provided to customers,” said Venali CEO Mark Toschek. “Although we are establishing a licensing program based on our growing portfolio of messaging patents, with this litigation we want to force j2 to stop selling services that infringe on Venali’s intellectual property rights.”