RPost claims that its service has been providing internet users with court admissible evidence of emails, their content, and a time/date stamp, since 2003 in the US.
The company adds that its service has been available in Switzerland since 2004, since when it sued Swiss Post for patent infringement in the US, with Swiss post settling the case under confidential terms.
Swiss Post, it notes, has withdrawn and then re-issued an updated version of its Incamail service.
This latest lawsuit alleges that these terms have been breached, forcing RPost to file a lawsuit in California last December, and now a full application through the Swiss courts,
"It has become quite apparent from Swiss Post's actions in the US that Swiss Post does not respect patent law. We will now see if Swiss Post executives feel that they are above the law in Switzerland", said Zafar Khan, RPost's CEO.
"To put it simply, this is a matter of an agency of the Swiss government – using Swiss taxpayer dollars – to knowingly and unlawfully use RPost's intellectual property", he said in a press statement.
Swiss Post did not return Infosecurity’s calls at press time; however the AFP newswire quotes Nathalie Salamin, a company spokesperson, as confirming the lawsuits, but denying that Incamail 3.0 violated any patents and vowing that Swiss Post would defend its technology platform.
According to the newswire, RPost first accused Swiss Post of patent infringement when Incamail was introduced in the US last year.
"Incamail was pulled out of the country after a confidential deal with RPost to settle the patent dispute. Swiss Post returned to the US in recent months with a revamped version of Incamail", says AFP.