Pitney Bowes Files Suit Against Zumbox

Stamford, Connecticut-based Pitney Bowes has filed a lawsuit against Zumbox, alleging its “paperless mail” service for consumers infringes Pitney Bowes' patents. The lawsuit was filed in California Central District Court and seeks, among other things, to stop Zumbox from further infringement.

“Pitney Bowes has been active in the acquisition, development and deployment of multi-channel messaging solutions, including those based on the platforms acquired from Alysis in 2000, Group 1 Software in 2004 and Emtex in 2006,” said Bernie Gracy, vice president, strategy and new business development, Pitney Bowes. “We continue to invest in these platforms and our intellectual property to introduce new physical and electronic messaging offerings as part of our longstanding customer communications management strategy.”

Traditionally known for its expertise in paper-based mail, Pitney Bowes has expanded its capabilities to include critical online communications solutions that link to and run in parallel with physical communications. It invested more than $200 million in research and development in 2008, with much of that total dedicated to software products.

The legal action centers on three U.S. patents: #7,478,140, “A System and Method for Sending Electronic Mail and Parcel Delivery Notification Using Recipient's Identification Information;” #6,690,773, “Recipient Control Over Aspects of Incoming Messages;” and #7,058,586, “Information Delivery System for Providing Senders with Recipient's Messaging Preferences.”