Wap in the dock as wireless rivals fight over patent

Phone.com issued a lawsuit last week against fellow wireless web software technologist Geoworks, accusing it of aggressively attempting to protect its intellectual property.

In question is Geoworks' patented technology that determines how applications can be displayed on a wide variety of platforms, including mobile phones.

Geoworks offered the technology to the industry for licensing via the Wap Forum in May 1999, but in the lawsuit issued last week Phone.com claimed that its technology does not infringe on Geoworks' intellectual property and that the patent is "invalid and unenforceable".

Alan Black, chief financial officer at Phone.com, said: "We believe that this lawsuit will produce an unequivocal declaration that Geoworks' patent has no relation to, and is not infringed by, Phone.com's technology."

Phone.com said it filed the lawsuit, "in response to Geoworks' aggressive attempt to require industry participants to obtain licenses under the Geoworks patent". Geoworks said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the action.

Dave Grannan, chief executive of Geoworks, said: "We have never accused any company, including Phone.com, of infringing our patent."

He said Geoworks was set to meet with Phone.com officials regarding licensing, but added that "the lawsuit shows that Phone.com's management favours litigation over the widely accepted business solution of licensing".

The legal spat is the latest blow to hit the emerging Wireless Application Protocol standard.

Last month the Wap forum was thrown into disarray after one of its members said that the platform was dead.

David Rensin, CTO at wireless developer Aether Systems, said that developers would need to rewrite the same website for a four-line cell-phone display and an eight-line display.