SAP sues to protect customers from patent suits The vendor is seeking a declaratory judgment against patent holder Pi-Net International

SAP has
filed a court action against
patent holder Pi-Net
International, which it says
has filed patent infringement
lawsuits against a number of
SAP customers.
The alleged infringements,
which concern three Pi-Net
patents, are associated with
SAP's Financial Fusion
software, which is used for
online banking and other
purposes. SAP gained the
software through its 2010
acquisition of Sybase.
At least one SAP customer
has asked the vendor to
indemnify it against any
liabilities that could ensue
from Pi-Net's lawsuits,
according to SAP's filing last
week in the U.S. District
Court for the Northern District
of California.
SAP is seeking a declaratory
judgment stating that its
products don't infringe on Pi-
Net's patents, a move that
would shield both itself and
customers from litigation.
The three patents in question
cover "multimedia transaction
services," "web application
network portal" and "value-
added network system for
enabling real-time, bi-
directional transactions on a
network," according to SAP's
suit.
Some evidence suggests Pi-
Net is a so-called non-
practicing entity, placing
more effort on enforcing its
intellectual property rights in
search of licensing fees and
damages, than creating
products for sale in the
market.
Pi-Net does not appear to
have a dedicated website, but
a phone number listed for the
company is also associated
with the Menlo Park,
California, firm WebXchange.
The latter company's website
contains a description for a
product called Transweb that
"intelligently routes, switches,
tracks, and manages value-
added Internet transactions."
WebXchange's software was
beta-tested at Cisco and put
into use at First Data,
according to the site.
Another page describes
WebXchange as an
"aggressive startup" and lists
job openings for software
engineers.
However, it was not clear
how current or accurate the
information on the dated-
looking site was on Friday, as
a copyright notice on one
page is labeled 2007.
In 2010, WebXchange and Pi-
Net's founder, Lakshmi
Arunachalam, filed an amicus
curiae brief in a patent case
brought against Facebook by
Leader Technologies. Such
briefs allow third parties to
weigh in about information
relevant to a case.
The brief describes her as
"the inventor of a portfolio of
the earliest Internet patents
that give control over any
real-time web transaction
from any web application."
In addition, "these patents
give her control over the
internet cloud and any cloud
application," according to the
brief, which also asserts that
Pi-Net and WebXchange are
"practicing entities with the
earliest products
implementing web
applications based on her
patents."
"Arunachalam invests 100%
of her time in research and
development (R&D) and in
the patenting of new internet-
based products," it adds. She
did not respond to requests
for comment on Friday.
Court records and news
reports show that
WebXchange has sued other
tech vendors in recent years
for patent infringement,
including Dell and Microsoft.
Records also show that Pi-
Net has filed lawsuits against
a series of financial
institutions within the past
year or so, including Merrill
Lynch and Bank of America.
It wasn't clear Friday whether
these were among the SAP
customers referred to in SAP's
filing, which were not named.