NEA (ASX) Ann: Nearmap made aware of complaint in US District Court (Utah)

Originally posted by SA1588: ↑

I saw this yesterday

SYDNEY--Nearmap Ltd. wasn't surprised by what it says are meritless patent-infringement claims by aerial-mapping rival EagleView Technologies Inc. and has seen no allegations of intent, Chief Executive Rob Newman says.

Mr. Newman on Thursday said Nearmap hadn't been served with the claim filed with the U.S. District Court of Utah and was still assessing it after being alerted on Wednesday by U.S. attorneys. Nearmap said allegations of infringement relating to roof-estimation technology are without merit and that the Australian company will vigorously defend itself.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Mr. Newman said previous legal proceedings by EagleView against another company meant the claim wasn't a total surprise. Washington-based EagleView, which is owned by Vista Equity Partners, previously sued Verisk Analytics Inc. for patent infringement and was awarded US$125 million in damages in 2019, with an additional US$250 million in punitive damages later on.

"Because EagleView is traditionally litigious--and in this case without merit--it wasn't in that sense a surprise," Mr. Newman said. "It's another demonstration that we have been successful in growing our business quite well and doing it with a reputation.
"We are growing very rapidly in North America and that gets noticed by your friends and foes, I guess."

Shares in Australia-based Nearmap were 22% lower following the complaint by EagleView and Pictometry International Corp.
Mr. Newman said Nearmap hadn't previously been subject to such a dispute and wouldn't have entered a market containing such a litigious participant unless it was very confident in its intellectual property.

"We consider ourselves a technology leader and we have leadership in a number of areas with patents across those, so we invest very heavily in our technology and are clean from an IP point of view," Mr. Newman said.

Mr. Newman completed a investor call on Wednesday to discuss upgraded full-year guidance but had to scrap a second at short notice after Nearmap became aware of the claim. The stock was up 15% at a near 10-week high of A$2.36 when trade was halted.
He declined to say what proportion of annual contract value--a key performance metric for Nearmap--was derived from roof estimation. RBC Capital Markets on Thursday estimated it accounted for 10% of ACV in the U.S. and about 4.0% across the group.
Mr. Newman said the business, which also provides services including 3-D mapping, was unaffected by the claim.
The stock came out of the trading halt on Thursday and slid 22% to A$1.85, its lowest in almost a year.

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