BERWYN, Pa.—Wireless location technology developer TruePosition Inc. said it is moving forward with its suit against Andrew Corp., alleging the company’s products infringe on its patents for dealing with the location of cell phones using the wireless network control channel. TruePosition’s lawsuit focuses on Andrew’s international activities, and seeks damages and a permanent injunction prohibiting further infringement, the company said.
Andrew pointed out that the lawsuit was filed last October.
“This lawsuit is old news and the only reason we can see why they would re-announce six months after this already was made public is to attempt to sway customers who have recently chosen our Geometrix solutions in the international marketplace,” responded Rick Aspan, spokesman for Andrew. “We feel we are on very solid ground and are defending ourselves vigorously.”
In late February, Andrew announced that it won a strategic multi-year international geolocation system contract with a tier one Middle Eastern operator. The company disclosed that the contract was worth more than $10 million in its first phase of deployments of Andrew’s Geometrix uplink time difference of arrival system, which is a network-based application for determining a mobile device’s position.
Fred Beckley, general counsel for TruePosition, said the company issued a press release about the lawsuit only to provide “an accurate account” of the lawsuit after learning that Andrew had been talking about it with potential clients. Prior to the announcement, the company had not publicly commented on the lawsuit, which is set to go to trial in September 2007 unless a settlement is reached.
“We are very confident that they are infringing, that we’re going to win this one,” Beckley said.
In 2004, Andrew settled a separate lawsuit with TruePosition for allegedly infringing on different patents. In that case, Andrew agreed to pay TruePosition $35 million and to provide warrants to purchase one million shares of Andrew’s common stock.
In a 2001 lawsuit against SigmaOne Communications Corp., TruePosition prevailed in its allegation that SigmaOne infringed on several of its patents, including the very same patent at the heart of its current lawsuit against Andrew.
TruePosition develops advanced wireless location systems, and is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.
News of the lawsuit didn’t seem to faze either company’s stock. Andrew’s stock traded down 4 cents at $13 per share this morning, while Liberty’s Media’s stock traded up one cent at $8.14 per share.
