Apple, HP, Dell, Others Sued Over Security Patents

A company known as Maz Encryption Technologies has filed patent lawsuits against Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Toshiba, BlackBerry and Apple. The patents in question relate to file-level and biometric encryption.

The H reported, “At the US Federal Court for the District of Delaware, MAZ Encryption Technologies has filed complaints against Apple, BlackBerry (formerly Research in Motion), Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba, accusing them of infringing on US patent number 7,096,358, which is owned by the company. The patent describes an automated technique for encrypting and decrypting files when they are closed, opened or edited. The associated key is stored on a portable device such as a smartcard.”

CNET’s Josh Lowensohn added, “The suits seek monetary damages, as well as an injunction against the companies that make the accused products.”

The Register’s Richard Chirgwin noted, “Maz Technologies first popped its head over the patent parapet in 2002, when it sued a company called PC Dynamics over a security patent, and in 2008 it settled a suit with Microsoft. PC Dynamics had tried to have patent 6,185,681 invalidated, but seems to have failed, since there is now a 2006-dated re-examination certificate attached to it. “

According to Computerworld’s Loek Essers, “The patents in the suit cover technologies that relate to electronic information and document security using file-level and biometric encryption, according to the court filings. All patented technologies were developed by Stephen Zizzi, who was CTO of Maz, the company said.”