Hola VPN’s Parent Organization, Luminati Networks Sues BI Science Inc. for Patent Infringement

• Luminati is attempting to protect their interests in user deception by suing competitors.
• The court to decide on the matter is based in Texas, as the USA is keen to protect patent ownership.
• More users fall victims of vague marketing claims that hide the real purpose of these services work in plain sight.

Luminati Networks, the company that has occupied the news recently with the revelation of the real workings of their free Hola VPN service has sued BI Science Inc., another company that promotes their own residential proxy network called “GeoSurf”. The indictment contains accusations for two patent infringements relevant to the methods that Luminati utilizes for fetching content over the internet through the use of intermediary tunneling devices.

Although both companies are based in Israel, the lawsuit was submitted to the Eastern District of Texas, because Luminati’s patents are more vigorously protected in the US, and due to the fact that many GeoSurf users have residential IP addresses in Texas. The patents are valid for many countries, including Israel of course, but Luminati may have figured that they would have better chances for a favorable outcome in a US court.

What is especially interesting is the fact that Luminati has included accusations of trade secrete and know how stealing through the employment of three of their former employees by GeoSurf. These former employees have signed confidentially and non-compete agreements with their former employer, and having joined BI Science in just a couple of months after leaving Luminati, they have infringed the agreed terms. Luminati claims to have suffered irreparable damage from the BI Science activities and adds that there is no adequate remedy for the harm done.

This is not the first time that Luminati targets a competitive company with allegations of patent infringement, as another residential proxy service named “Oxylabs” received a similar lawsuit back in July. All of these companies, however, are only fighting for a piece of the pie on taking advantage of people who are wrongfully maintaining the idea that they are using some kind of a private VPN network service.

As analyzed by Trend Micro recently, Hola is far from offering something like that, and Luminati’s response ascertained the revelations. It is interesting to see what new dangers and risks the cybersecurity experts will locate thanks to the publication of the lawsuit, which details the technical way these community proxy services operate. No matter all that, Luminati’s sole goal is to continue on the same path, eliminating the competition of identical services with the power of patented technology, even if this technology is widely controversial.

Would you trust any of these companies with your bandwidth and IP? Let us know in the comments below, and also share your thoughts on our social media, on Facebook and Twitter.