By Aditya Kondalamahanty and Sruthi Ramakrishnan
Oct 10 (Reuters) - Mobile software company Vringo Inc, best
known for its video ringtones, is betting on recently acquired
intellectual property to drive revenue growth as it battles
several big names including Google Inc and ZTE Corp over
infringement of its patents.
"We believe that the intellectual property that we own is
substantial revenue to be earned and we would not go through
with it (the lawsuits) unless we are confident that we will get
a positive result for us and our shareholders," said Vringo's
Chief Executive Andrew Perlman.
Shares of the company have gained about 56 percent since the
beginning of the month following reports that its lawsuit
against Google had merit.
Google's demand for a summary judgment was dismissed by a
district judge on Oct. 3, citing "genuine issues of material
fact in dispute."
The lawsuit comes up for hearing on Oct. 16, after the
companies failed to reach a settlement on Tuesday, Perlman said.
Vringo inherited the lawsuit after it acquired
Innovate/Protect (I/P), a company which specializes in
monetizing intellectual property, in March.
I/P had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AOL Inc,
Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned IAC Search & Media, Gannett Co
Inc and Target Corp in 2011.
The lawsuit against Google involves two patents that I/P
bought from Lycos, one of the biggest search engines of the
90's.
Vringo is seeking at least $696 million from Google,
financial website iStockAnalyst had reported.
"It would be logical for Google to buy Vringo and then use
them as a strategic patent weapon, for example, to sue Microsoft
Corp," Maxim Group analyst John Tinker said.
Google declined to comment on the matter.
While Google is trying to fight it out, AOL partly settled
the dispute in August paying $100,000.
"We settled with them (AOL) only for the use of their own
in-house products, but not for their use of Google's products,"
said Perlman, who became CEO after the merger with I/P.
Vringo bought 500 wireless patents from Nokia in August to
strengthen its intellectual property portfolio.
The company on Monday filed a patent infringement lawsuit
against Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE in the
U.K. High Court of Justice.
The ZTE lawsuit involves patents acquired from Nokia,
Perlman said.
He, however, declined to say if the company plans to pursue
further lawsuits using the Nokia patents.
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