Nuance Communications and its Tegic subsidiary filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Canada against Zi Corporation, which earlier rejected an acquisition proposal from Nuance.
In the suit, Nuance and Tegic assert that Zi’s Qix and eZiText products infringe Tegic’s intellectual property. The patents involve “reduced keyboard disambiguating system.”
Nuance said the inventions and intellectual property are critical to its business.
Earlier this month, Nuance submitted a proposal to the board of directors of Zi to acquire Zi for 80 cents per common share in cash, but Zi said that offer did not recognize the full value of the company.
Zi received notice on Aug. 20 that Nuance filed a motion against the company in a San Francisco court regarding the eZiText software. Zi called the timing of that motion “highly suspicious.” In response to the filing in Canada, Zi issued a statement saying it has no reason to believe that it infringes any patent claims of Nuance, and it is disappointed that Nuance is “resorting to these tactics to acquire Zi.”
In a friendlier transaction last week, Nuance announced its plan to acquire self-service phone technology provider SNAPin for $180 million in stock.