Kootol Software from India Sends Notice to Microsoft, Apple, and Others Over Patented Technology

There are not many who have heard about India’s Kootol Software Limited before until today. Kootol Software, formed in 2010 by two brothers – Yogesh and Vijay Rathod – announced in a press release on Friday that they have sent a notice to several companies including Microsoft and Apple over the use of Kootol’s core technology in their products.

Among the other big companies that have been sent notices: Yahoo, Google, Bharti Airtel Ltd., Webaroo Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd., Amazon, AOL, Nokia, Bebo Inc., ExactTarget Inc., Ford Motor, Foursquare Inc., IBM, Linkedin, MySpace, NING Inc., Research In Motion Inc., Quora Inc., Salesforce.com Inc., Seesmic Inc., Siemens Enterprise Communications Inc., Sina.com Technology Co. Ltd., StatusNet Inc., PopBox Inc., Twitpic Inc., Peek Inc., The Iconfactory Inc., Ubermedia Inc., Yammer Inc., Facebook and Twitter.

The press release stated that many more companies and developers are going to be sent notices. The release proclaims that “We also welcome all the companies and developers for the licensing.” The confidence in the press release shows that the company is not unprepared and might have its cards ready.

What is Kootol’s Basis for Sending Notices to Such Big Companies?

Kootol’s co-founder, Yogesh Rathod has a US patent application 11/995,343 which covers “core messaging, publication and real-time search technology”. The patent hasn’t been approved yet, but may get awarded soon. Kootol says that it’s about-to-be patented technology is being used by all the above listed firms and so it has sent notices giving enough time for the companies to examine and settle the matter.

CNET reports that Twitter was sent a notice along much the same lines last month. Twitter was said to be infringing on Kootol’s invention which allows the user to publish and send messages using one way or two way messaging and by subscribing to posts of other users of a network.

Could all this be just another attempt to grab money from the big guns? Or, is it a genuine claim by Kootol? Whatever it is, only time will tell. Until now, the companies notified haven’t replied with any response.