(17 June 2006 10:25 pm)

MUMBAI: IBM has filed two patent infringement lawsuits against online book and retail major Amazon.com for unspecified damages.

The lawsuits come after nearly four years of attempts by IBM to resolve its concerns with Amazon.com over infringement of IBM’s patents.

The suits were filed in two District Courts for the Eastern District of Texas: one suit in the Tyler Division and the other suit in the Lufkin Division.

IBM Technology and Intellectual Property senior VP Dr. John E. Kelly III says, "We filed this case for a very simple reason. IBM's property is being knowingly and unfairly exploited. IBM is one of the world's leading creators of intellectual property and one of the most progressive in embracing new, highly collaborative ways of driving and managing innovation.

"Everything we do is premised on the fundamental principle that IBM's intellectual property is one of our core assets, and represents the work product of tens of thousands of scientists and engineers and billions of dollars of investment."

IBM said that Amazon.com has willfully infringed and continues to infringe on a number of key IBM patents.

Dating back to September 2002, IBM says that it has notified Amazon.com numerous times of the infringement, but Amazon.com has shown no willingness to have meaningful discussions.

“When someone takes our property, without our permission through a license, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us,” said Kelly.

IBM holds more than 40,000 patents worldwide and has been awarded the most US patents for 13 consecutive years. The company has a long history of licensing its patents covering e-commerce on fair terms. Over the past five decades, IBM has entered into numerous patent licensing agreements with companies that respect intellectual property rights in a broad range of industries. Many companies have licensed these five high-quality patents from IBM, as well as others, in "field of use" patent licenses.