Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Zumbox Sued By Pitney Bowes

Westlake Village-based Zumbox, a startup developing a system to deliver electronic communications to people using just their postal address, has been sued by Pitney Bowes. Pitney Bowes said Tuesday that Zumbox's system infringes on the firm's patents. Pitney Bowes said it is seeking to enjoin Zumbox from further infringement of three patents held by the firm, U.S. patents: #7,478,140, "A System and Method for Sending Electronic Mail and Parcel Delivery Notification Using Recipient's Identification Information"; #6,690,773, "Recipient Control Over Aspects of Incoming Messages"; and #7,058,586, "Information Delivery System for Providing Senders with a Recipient's Messaging Preferences." In a statement, Zumbox CEO Donn Rappaport said "We are confident that Zumbox is not in violation of, or infringing on, Pitney Bowes' patents in any way." Zumbox said it was reviewing the suit. The lawsuit was filed in the California Central District Court.

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