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MacroSolve sues Facebook over patent
Feb 04, 2012 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
MacroSolve has added Facebook to the tech companies it is suing for allegedly infringing upon its patent.
A lawsuit filed by Tulsa-based MacroSolve Inc. claims the social networking giant is violating U.S. Patent No. 7,822,816, which gives MacroSolve the rights to the process by which a company or individual creates an app, sends it to be downloaded to mobile devices, collects information from users and sends it back to a central database.
Jim McGill, vice chairman of MacroSolve, has said the patent covers every existing mobile app that sends data from the app user back to the makers or administrators of the app -- potentially hundreds of thousands of existing or yet-to-be-written apps.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook Inc. becomes the 46th company MacroSolve has taken to court over the patent. McGill noted in an email that more than half of the lawsuits have been settled, and MacroSolve continues to file five to 10 more per month.
Terms of the settlements have not been released.
Some of the more prominent companies sued by MacroSolve in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas include AT&T Inc., Citigroup Inc., Dell Inc., Groupon, Living Social, Salesforce.com, Hotels.com, Priceline.com, Travelocity.com, Hertz Corp., American Airlines, Avis Rent A Car System, Continental Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
McGill said MacroSolve has identified 250 potential infringers, and company officials expect the number to grow as they analyze each company's products.
In its last quarterly report, MacroSolve reported revenue of $593,000, an improvement over the $219,000 reported for the previous quarter, and a net loss of $535,000, an improvement from the previous $663,000 loss.
Robert Evatt 918-581-8447
robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com
___ (c)2012 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) Visit Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) at
www.tulsaworld.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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