Reunion.com sues Plaxo for patent infringement
Reunion.com filed a lawsuit against Plaxo on Tuesday, alleging that the company's online address book service infringes on Reunion's patent for automatically updating information within a database.
"As explained in the complaint, we patented this technology and we believe that Plaxo is infringing on our patent with its Plaxo services," Jeffrey Tinsley, founder and CEO of Reunion.com, said in a statement. "We provided notice to Plaxo and brought this lawsuit only as a last resort in order to protect our important IP rights and to obtain damages and injunctive relief."
A Plaxo spokeswoman said: "Based on our review of the allegations from Reunion.com, we believe that they are without merit and plan to assert our position appropriately. Meanwhile, we will continue to focus on serving our customers and growing our business."
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that Plaxo is infringing on the '348 patent, entitled "Method And System For Automatically Updating Information Within A Contact Database," issued in March 2004. The technology was developed by GoodContacts Research, which Reunion.com acquired that year.
Earlier on Tuesday, Plaxo announced a new service that lets users make phone calls by clicking on the phone numbers in their Plaxo address book.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
