After debuting on the New York Stock Exchange last week with a huge pop in stock value, mobile ad network Millennial Media is now facing potential legal trouble from another mobile ad player. The company is facing a patent lawsuit by mobile marketing service, Augme Technologies. We’ve embedded the lawsuit below.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware, says that the patents in question are all generally relating to “systems and methods for providing targeted content over the Internet.” From the patent lawsuit: “The ’721, the ’636, and the ’691 Patents are generally directed to the manner in which content provided in a Web page, such as advertisements, music, videos, and the like, is customized based on the end user’s computing environment, connectivity, bandwidth level, geographic location, gender, age, or other targeting criteria such as behavioral marketing data.”
As we’ve written in the past, Augme’s mobile advertising platform, called Ad Life, allows marketers, brands, and agencies to plan, create, test, deploy, and track mobile marketing programs. The foundation for this patented-technology is the ability to reach targeted groups while remaining device-agnostic. Augme also recently acquired mobile marketing and advertising platform Hipcricket for $44.5 million.
Millennial is one of the largest remaining independent mobile ad networks and currently serves ads to 200 million unique users worldwide, including approximately 100 million unique users in the United States alone. More than 30,000 apps are enabled by developers to receive ads delivered by Millennial.
Augme is seeking damages for the patents potentially infringed upon in the form of royalties and interest. The company also sued Velti in March for infringing upon similar targeting patents.
It’s certainly interesting timing on Augme’s part with Millennial’s recent IPO and cash infusion of over $130 million in the offering. We’ve contacted Millennial for comment and will update when we hear back.
Millennial Media is the leading independent mobile advertising and data company. Millennial Media commands an impressive share of the mobile display advertising market. The company’s technology, tools and services also power some of the largest companies in the media business today. Millennial Media is committed to growing the mobile advertising marketplace by becoming the preferred partner to advertisers seeking to reach mobile consumers, application and media developers seeking to maximize ad revenue, and mobile operators seeking to further monetize...
Augme Technologies, Inc. provides strategic services and mobile technology to leading consumer and healthcare brands. Augme’s AD LIFEâ„¢ mobile marketing technology platform uses patented device-detection and proprietary mobile content adaptation software to solve the mobile marketing industry problem of disparate operating systems, device types, and on-screen mobile content rendering. AD LIFEâ„¢ allows marketers, brands, and agencies the ability to plan, create, test, deploy, and track mobile marketing programs. Through the use of consumer response tags such as 2D codes,...
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