French liner company CMA CGM has become the third boxship owner to be sued by an alleged "patent troll".
Transcend Shipping Systems — the New York-area firm backed by serial patent litigant Raymond Joao — filed a lawsuit in the US federal court for the Western District of Texas on 8 January, accusing the boxship giant of infringing on four patents related to its online system to track refrigerated containers.
"The claims of the Transcend patents were all properly issued, and are valid and enforceable for the respective terms of their statutory life through expiration, and are enforceable for purposes of seeking damages for past infringement even post-expiration," the complaint read.
CMA CGM's system is provided by Traxens, a French start-up that both the company and Mediterranean Shipping Co have invested in.
CMA CGM did not immediately return any requests for comment.
Transcend seeks treble damages as allowed by US law, attorneys fees and royalties.
The patents describe a system where customers can track a container's location and conditions using a global positioning system and memory device mounted on the container. One of the patents describes a system for sending alerts.
The patents were issued to Raymond Joao, a businessman and attorney from Yonkers, New York, and transferred to Transcend, a Florida-registered company where Joao is a manager.
So far, Transcend has sued Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd for their systems.
Previously, another Joao-backed company — Joao Bock Transaction Systems — was involved in dozens of lawsuits against banks, credit-card companies, brokerages and financial software providers over patents that the firm owned.
The patents covered systems allowing customers to monitor and deny transactions through a computer.
The litigation began in 2003, with the last closed in 2016. Joao Bock Transaction Systems settled some of the cases and lost others, with some judges invalidating the patents in some instances.
In 2013, Online Resources Corp called Joao a "patent troll" in a lawsuit seeking to prevent Joao Bock Transaction Systems from suing a subsidiary. Online Resources Corp said a prior settlement agreement prevented it from being sued for the infringement any further.
So-called patent trolling — or entities solely holding patents and suing companies making products or providing services for infringement — was an issue in US courts in the last decade before court decisions and legislation narrowed the rights of patent-holders.
