22 Miles Inc. Views Recent FWI Lawsuit As Meritless
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
22 Miles, a Milpitas, California-based company that is subject to a lawsuit by Four Winds Interactive that we wrote about on March 31/2016, has sent us a statement re its side of the dispute.
As mentioned in the previous article, Four Winds Interactive LLC, Denver, Colorado, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Colorado against 22 MILES for Patent Infringement, Copyright Infringement, Unjust Enrichment, Unfair Competition, and Patent False Marking. FWI also requested an immediate source code review of 22 MILES’ software and expedited discovery.
22 Miles, Inc. says that it is a fast-growing, long-time leader in Wayfinding and Cross-Platform Digital Signage and that 22 Miles views this lawsuit as meritless and will vigorously defend itself in court. From what we’ve been able to learn, 22 Miles was co-founded in 2007 by Joey Zhao, CEO, and an unidentified partner. The company is privately held and is believed to have a staff of approximately 55 , most of whom are software engineers/developers.
In its ‘attorney approved’ release, 22 Miles says: “Since at least 2009, 22 Miles has been a leader in Digital Wayfinding, when its Wayfinding software won the Microsoft Code Grand Prize out of 4,000 global competitors. With over eight years of non-stop development, 22 Miles offers comprehensive user-editable Wayfinding, now available in 3D, alongside its digital signage all-in-one platform with hardware independent capability from mobile devices to multi-user interactive video walls. Its long-term industry prominence is confirmed by the fact that 22 Miles just received its 5-year exhibitor plaque from the Digital Signage Expo this year. In fact, its competitor’s own patent lists 22Miles software as a reference on the face of the patent.
“Ultimately, 22 Miles has gained high market share and a strong reputation in the industry based on being a professional, flexible, supportive solution provider to all of its customers and partners in a friendly ecosystem. 22 Miles believes innovation is the key to its success. This continuous commitment to innovation culture has been the ultimate driving force for the 22 Miles R&D team. A recent example is that 22 Miles introduced Robot Signage at DSE 2016, which showcased 22 Miles’ strong R&D and forward thinking prototype capabilities such as Robot Control and Text-to-Speech.
“22 Miles owns more than 500,000 lines of proprietary and active source code, which is the result of years of its own development. It releases new features and enhancements almost every day. This continual progress solidifies 22 Miles as a technology leader in the marketplace.
“In addition to its strong technical capabilities, 22 Miles has been flexible and adaptive across their client service practice. When customers complained about 3-year mandatory maintenance costs, labor-intensive manual update, and limited functionality across current platforms, 22 Miles answered these complaints with solutions and positioned itself as a desirable provider that allowed an alternate and more efficient solution.
“As a result, 22 Miles has been repeatedly approached by clients and integration partners to take over projects that failed to deliver by other vendors because of insufficiency in technology. With a stable platform, continuous adaptability in their working relationships, and productive workflow, 22 Miles has been able to continually gain new customers and grow its existing business. These are the reasons why 22 Miles has been so successful for so long. Anything that its competitor says to the contrary in its lawsuit will be vigorously challenged by 22 Miles in court.“
Follow DailyDOOH