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Afilias' European Device Detection Patent Invalid

James Rosewell

7/4/2019 4:00 PM

Device Detection 51Degrees DeviceAtlas Patent News

DeviceAtlas a trivial variation of WURFL

Yesterday the European Patent Office (EPO) opposition division narrowed Afilias Technologies Plc's device detection patent EP2245836B1 in Europe, as a result of an opposition brought by 51Degrees in 2017 and explained in this blog. The EPO concluded that the patent as initially granted was not valid.

Validation

The EPO's decision validates 51Degrees assertion that Afilias' patent was a trivial variation of WURFL - a previously open and widely used device detection solution - when combined with a computing technique first described in the 1960s. Created in the last decade, both DeviceAtlas and WURFL were launched prior to the explosion in device variations and combinations which followed the release of the Apple iPhone and mass adoption of Android. Such patents stifle innovation and competition.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) forced Afilias to significantly narrow a counterpart patent application US9185182B2 prior to grant in 2015. Another counterpart US patent application US20160070796 received a final rejection in March 2019.

Narrowed

In short, Afilias device detection patents have been narrowed so much as to be meaningless or rejected. Their customers no longer benefit from the patent protection or inventive solution they were promised. 51Degrees are the only device detection vendor to continuously innovate throughout this decade achieving granted and meaningful patents in both the US and Europe.

Innuendo

Any innuendo from Afilias casting doubt on 51Degrees innovative technology is entirely without substance. The EPO's decision exposes Afilias' bogus technology claims and settles the matter until the inevitable appeal.

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