'Text-Savvy' RP Firms Granted Patents for SMS Products
January 24, 2003
Philippine-based Chikka Asia Inc. and affiliate Bidshot Dotcom announced they have received patent grants from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.
Patent grants are also expected shortly from other countries that are signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The treaty extends patent protection to major wireless markets including the Philippines and majority of European countries.
"Patents are an integral part of our investment in technology and our effort to establish the Philippines as a regional center for excellence in wireless applications development," said Dennis Mendiola, chief executive officer of Chikka Asia Inc.
The patented methods and systems are used in Chikka's popular Instant Messenger, which connects PC users to cellular phones through text messaging or SMS (Short Message Service). The "Chikka" IM connects to all major Philippine GSM operators.
"Chikka" is Filipino slang for "small talk."
The announcement came at the heels of search reports confirming "no prior art" for Chikka's "suffixing" technology. A "no prior art" search report strongly suggests an inventive and novel technology and is the precursor of an actual patent grant.
"This suffixing technology has allowed Chikka and Bidshot unparalleled creativity with plain SMS, making it highly interactive. Thus, we have been able to adopt any successful model on the Internet like auction, instant messaging, chat, and dating," said Mendiola.
The patents were first employed for the PC to mobile texting application "Chikka Txt Messenger." In fact, a GSM number used as a PC log-on ID is the subject of yet another patent.
Earlier, Bidshot Dotcom, a Chikka affiliate, assigned these "virtual GSM numbers" to transactions and items being auctioned off and bided upon by a community of buyers and sellers.
"The point has always been to give the mobile user more things to do through SMS while retaining the simplicity, intuitiveness and ease of use that has been at the very center of our love affair with text," said Mendiola.
The two companies have ventured out of their original messaging and m-commerce platforms to exclusively employ these patented and patent-pending processes in mobile promotions and advertising, SMS-interactive TV and for corporate solutions such as text hotline and text radio.
A Singapore-registered subsidiary, Chikka Pte Ltd, holds the title on Chikka's intellectual property assets, including all international treaty and national patents, brand names, trademarks and service marks.
Source: Metropolitan Computer Times
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