US mobile marketing firms face mobile to web interface patent claims

According to a ‘breaking news’ piece on Mobile Marketer, a number of mobile marketing companies and SMS aggregators have received a legal letter from TeleCommunication Systems Inc. , claiming that they have infringed patents around the technology that allows messages from consumer mobile phones to be relayed to web interfaces. The technical and legal side is a bit beyond me, but this is technology that virtually all mobile marketing firms (including us) use to capture messages from mobiles and relay messages back across online SMS platforms. It’s the basis for SMS response, voting and many other campaigns.

You can read TCS’s press release on the granting of one of the patents in question here:

By all accounts, TeleCommunication Systems Inc. have a history of legal action over alleged patent infringements, including going after RIM. We’ll report back on any updates. Meanwhile, we’ll be watching the post…….