NEW YORK-In a war of words following delivery of a judicial verdict, both sides claimed victory last week after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on a patent dispute between wireless prepaid phone providers Telemac Corp. and Topp Telecom Inc.
Both sides agree the federal court held that Topp’s TRACFONE does not violate Telemac’s patent for Telemac Rental Accounting Cellular, known as TRAC. Topp said the reason for the ruling is that the accounting software used by both companies is different. Telemac substituted `inferior’ for `different’.
“We are gratified the court has confirmed that Topp Telecom’s technology does not, in fact, infringe on Telemac’s patent rights,” F.J. Pollak, chairman and chief executive officer of Miami-based Topp, said in a statement Aug. 10.
“Now we can focus our attention on our business without the concern that we are unfairly violating the rights of another business entity.”
Later the same day, Telemac, based in Berkeley, Calif., issued its own prepared statement intended to “correct the impressions created by a Topp press release issued earlier today.”
Telemac said the federal court would allow Telemac’s “trademark” claims against Topp to proceed to trial. The court also “affirmed the validity of 21 out of 33 claims in Telemac’s patent, after earlier invalidating the other 12,” said Telemac.
“Though we are pleased the court confirmed the validity of Telemac’s patent and complimented the superiority of Telemac’s technology, its ruling is too narrow,” said Roger Cook, a senior partner of Townsend, Townsend & Crew, trial counsel for Telemac.
“We are confident that this ruling, as well as the court’s prior ruling on 12 of Telemac’s 33 patent claims, will be overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.”
