HCL's US arm faces patent infringement claim related to one of its software products

Mumbai: HCL America, the US subsidiary of software exporter HCL Technologies, is facing a patent infringement claim related to one of its software products.

HCL America is due to respond to the lawsuit filed by a Texas-based company, Coretek Licensing, by 28 September, as per court documents reviewed by ET.

Coretek Licensing, a legal arm of technology services company Coretek Services, filed the case in the southern district court of New York in late June, alleging that HCL’s software product, HCL Sametime, had infringed on its patent.


HCL Sametime is an application used for collaboration by enterprises and has features like instant messaging and web conferencing, according to HCL’s website.

Coretek has alleged that similar to the claims in four patents held by it, HCL Sametime also enables wireless devices (like smartphones) to initiate network connections without using a user’s home location details. It has sought a jury trial and an accounting of all alleged “infringed sales” and damages.

HCL did not respond to ET’s queries on the lawsuit.

According to Coretek’s petition, three of the four patents held by it relate to wireless communications and one relates to phone service over the Internet or the Voice Over Internet Protocol. It has alleged that HCL Sametime infringes upon at least one or multiple claims in these four patents.

In legal parlance, patent ‘claim’ refers to the features of the patented invention and the exclusive right to those features. ET has seen a copy of the lawsuit.

Salman Waris, a partner at technology law firm TechLegis Advocates & Solicitors, said HCL America’s intellectual property compliance team would have to prove that the company’s product was different from the patent claims.

“The company has to prove that it has developed another method to enable a wireless device connection without using an operator’s home location register,” Waris said.