Chikka Builds Up Arsenal of Intellectual Property around SMS Applications
May 21, 2004
Spark of hope for IT industry
One has to, if one is to be a major global player in the wireless space.
Thus, says Chikka Asia, Inc. chief executive Officer Dennis Mendiola as to why the company has spent over a million dollars on global patents.
A total of 12 patents have been filed by Manila-based Chikka and its affiliate companies who together in the last two years blanketed the Philippine wireless space for various uses of SMS - to communicate with someone on the Internet, to bid for a rare product, to register a complaint to government, to make payments, and yes, to find romance.
The first of the patents were actually granted by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore with subsequent grants expected from other signatories to International Patent Cooperation Treaty. The patents are employed firstly by the mobile instant messaging application popularly known as Chikka Text Messenger. The application unifies one's GSM phone number and PC Instant Messaging account so that: one, your PC log-on ID is nothing but your phone number; and two, messages are forwarded to your phone when you are off-line. "Instant messaging" can thus continue on mobile mode. The patented innovations are in popular use by overseas Filipinos who are able to send text messages from the Internet to any Globe or Smart mobile phone.
An affiliate company, Bidshot owns patents particular to Bidshot.com, the world's only SMS-enabled auction site. The innovation has been certified where one is alerted on the status of his bid and subsequently able to bid on items via SMS. Another patented innovation lies in the fact that buyer and seller are able to interact anonymously.
Sagent, another affiliate leading in "natural language," or the SMS counterpart of "artificial intelligence", owns patents for "mBrace." M-brace is simply your usual 1-800FLOWERS number, except the numeric digits are text or SMS short codes.
Still another Manila-based company who has filed patents for proprietary technologies is Paysetter International. The company pioneered the "virtual wallet," sending and receiving actual cash via SMS with one's GSM number linked to his bank account.
More recently, the group led by Paysetter partnered with Globe Telecom to give the country its first variable peer-to-peer (P2P) secure credit reloading system dubbed "Share-a-Load." The application, seen as a major development in enabling real m-commerce, again benefits from patented processes, in particular the most natural way by which one sends an amount of call credits to the recipient's GSM phone number.
'A love affair with text'
"For everything that has been launched, the patented processes have always translated to giving people more and more things to do with SMS. This, while retaining the simplicity, economy, and ease of use which have been at the very center of the Filipino's love affair with text," says Mendiola. "We now look to exporting this culture to the whole world."
Audrey and Yu Sarn, Singapore-based counsel for intellectual property of Chikka says that by global standards, the company and its affiliates have assembled by far the most impressive cluster of patents to trip any would-be infringer.
Asked about developing applications in an environment where IP rights are frequently violated, Chikka's Mendiola says: "Respect for intellectual property, I guess starts from within. You tend to respect others intellectual property, when you jealously guard your own. We hope to provide the spark."
Chikka Asia, Inc. is a pioneer in wireless applications services development, having created the world's first mobile IM and proceeding to launch it in the coveted "SMS Capital" in 2001. The company has since developed multi-platforms including mobile-interactive TV, SMS-enabled auction sites, mobile matchmaking, and mobile versions of Internet Relay Chat. It has fully exploited proprietary "suffixing" technology to bring successful Internet models to the mobile world. It licenses the same patented methods to affiliates and partners who have employed them for their various mobile solutions, in turn launched by international carriers.
In 2002, Chikka Asia, Inc., the company's regional operating entity based in Manila became one of the first mobile data enablers in the world to be ISO-certified under the 9001:2000 series. By aligning its management and software development processes with international standards, Chikka has helped establish the region as a global hub for excellent wireless applications testing and development.
Source: Manila Bulletin
Back to Top
Back to Press Room |
