Company Suing SnapChat for Infringing on Geolocation Patent
A technology firm is suing SnapChat. Investel Capital Corporation which owns a global marketing system called iFramed, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against SnapChat in the Federal Court of Canada.
The Vancouver-based company says SnapChat’s geo-filters, which use the geolocation of social media users “in order to provide on-demand insertion of external content in the form of a frame or overlay on pictures or videos,” infringes upon several claims held by Investel’s patent.
Investel says it is seeking remedies in the form of monetary damages for past infringement, as well as injunctive relief prohibiting SnapChat from continuing to infringe the patent.
The firm claims that, through its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary Teliphone Navigata-Westel Communication, is the first to develop and patent an advertising system that allow users to brand their own social media content with user-related advertising and information, and then pay those users for posting on social media.
“We have invested heavily to develop and protect our technologies which we use to provide valuable, cutting-edge services to social media users through our licensee partner, iFramed Canada,” said Lawry Trevor-Deutsch, Managing Partner. “We will not stand by and permit other companies or organisations, including Snapchat, Inc to exploit our proprietary technology.”
With offices in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, Investel focuses on investing in the development of new technologies with their own R&D resource group and currently has a portfolio of patents files worldwide.
With iFramed, users are able to post photo or video content to their favorite social media which contains the branding options offered to them based on their demographic profile including geo-positioning. They are then paid for posting this branded content by the advertiser or sponsor through iFramed. According to Investal, iFramed “is the ecosystem that completes the missing link between social media sites, their users and the advertisers by allowing advertisers to more closely target their message and for users to share in the monetization of social media.”
How popular the app is remains unclear, but in the App Store, iFramed has not received enough ratings to display an average.
