Investel Capital Corporation Files Patent Infringement Suit Against SnapChat, Inc. in the Federal Court of Canada

SnapChat, Inc. is a provider of image and video-based social media services with head office in Venice, California, United States. The suit, filed in the Federal Court of Canada, states that SnapChat, Inc. is infringing on certain claims of Investel's Canadian Patent No. 2,887,596, entitled "USER CONTENT SHARING SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH AUTOMATED EXTERNAL CONTENT INTEGRATION".

Amongst other claims, SnapChat, Inc.'s "geofilters" which use the geolocation of social media users in order to provide on demand insertion of external content in the form of a frame or overlay on pictures or videos, infringes upon several claims held by Investel's patent.

Investel is seeking remedies in the form of monetary damages for past infringement, as well as injunctive relief prohibiting Snapchat, Inc. from continuing to infringe the patent. Investel will also continue to develop and assert its rights from its broadly filed global patent portfolio, which claims the benefit of an early priority date of January 3, 2014, in key jurisdictions including, but not limited to, the United States, China, Australia, Japan, India, Canada and throughout Europe.

Investel through its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary Teliphone Navigata-Westel Communication Inc. is the first to develop and patent an advertising system that allow users to brand their own social media content with user-related advertising and information, and then pay those users for posting on social media. Operating under the trade name "iFramed" the system provides users with advertising choices for integration into pictures and videos based on, among other things, their geographic locations and specific demographic information. iFramed Canada Ltd. has licensed the iFramed system for exclusive use in North America.

"We have invested heavily to develop and protect our technologies which we use to provide valuable, cutting-edge services to social media users through our licensee partner, iFramed Canada," said Lawry Trevor-Deutsch, Managing Partner. "We believe that iFramed is a powerful global system and is extremely compelling to both advertisers and social media users. We will not stand by and permit other companies or organisations, including Snapchat, Inc to exploit our proprietary technology. The geo-location data gathered from users and resulting insertion of advertiser's content into posted picture and subsequent monetization to users is vital and key to the use of social media in the future. SnapChat, Inc. seems to have focused most of its core monetization strategy in this area and uses a technology that is propriety to Investel Capital Corporation. This suit reflects our continued commitment to protect our investments by vigorously pursuing the unauthorized and unlicensed use of our intellectual property, whether in Canada or around the world." added Mr. Trevor-Deutsch.

Investel is reviewing its rights and options to assert its patents in regards to other major social media networks that have incorporated its technology as many social media sharing apps are now following this global trend for the next generation of integrated geo-localization branded user generated content into their platforms.

Investel Capital Corp vs. Snapchat, Inc – complete Statement of Claim is available for download at: www.investel.com/legal/snapchatinc.pdf

Patent No. 2,887,596 - USER CONTENT SHARING SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH AUTOMATED EXTERNAL CONTENT INTEGRATION: www.google.com/patents/WO2015100496A1?cl=en

For further information on iFramed, go to www.iframed.com

For further information on Investel Capital Corporation, go to www.investel.com

The iFramed application is downloadable at the Apple App Store and Google Play Apps under application name "iFramed"

About Investel Capital Corporation

Investel Capital Corporation is an investment fund specializing in the acquisition of telecommunications companies and development of new technologies. With offices in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, it focuses on investing in the development of new technologies with their own R&D resource group and currently has a portfolio of patents files worldwide. It also invests in distressed or underachieving telecom companies that have recurring revenue but low profitability in order to gather efficiencies by folding them into their telecom portfolio. Investel's companies have access to its comprehensive network resources and infrastructures such as administration, engineering, customer support, network operations, amongst other things. In this way, redundant expenses such as operational and network costs are eliminated, thereby reducing overall costs and increasing revenue.

About iFramed Canada Ltd.

iFramed Canada Ltd. is the exclusive North American licensee of iFramed, a complete system for the creation of advertising campaigns on social media through posting of branded content by users.

About iFramed

iFramed is an Internet social media user/advertiser relationship based global marketing system with a user app that works with most popular social media sites. With iFramed, users are able to post photo or video content to their favorite social media which contains the branding options offered to them based on their demographic profile including geo-positioning. They are then paid for posting this branded content by the advertiser or sponsor through iFramed. iFramed believes this "paid to post" approach is much more effective than any current system including banner ads or where advertisers are charged on a "per click" basis. Sponsored content is posted in real time and without annoying pop ups or ads that need to be viewed or closed. The amount a user is paid for posting is based on their specific demographic, their popularity with other users and how advertisers have set up their iFramed campaign. This can range from a few cents to over one hundred dollars per post.

iFramed provides advertisers with an efficient and effective tool to promote their brand, product and message. It also provides its users with a personal digital copyright watermark on all pictures and videos in a form of a frame/filter style with the sponsor logos and/or messages.

iFramed is the ecosystem that completes the missing link between social media sites, their users and the advertisers by allowing advertisers to more closely target their message and for users to share in the monetization of social media. iFramed changes the rules for promotion on social media as it is a targeted approach which is non-offensive to users because it empowers and rewards both users and advertisers. iFramed also seizes on the emotion of an individual's postings and the branding becomes an implied endorsement unlike current ads which are detached from the users.

iFramed expects that this will lead to exponential growth in valuable content that will be pushed through this new ecosystem via the various social media sites. As specific content becomes popular and viral, users and sponsor will be rewarded accordingly.

iFramed uses a simple business model; half the revenue received by iFramed from advertisers is immediately credited to the users iFramed account. Users can then request payment any time through the iFramed app and are paid in the form of check by mail or prepaid credit card. The minimum payment is $10.

iFramed is attractive to social media users as it enables them to take control of advertising on their accounts.  It represents an important evolution from the current ad model where users are becoming more oblivious and detached from the advertising they are presented with, and towards a model where they are both engaged and empowered. Users have long resented the fact that social media sites are earning huge profits from their content and receiving nothing tangible back. Recent research shows that social media users want to share in the wealth created by their content. The iFramed  ecosystem and its app allows for that sharing of wealth and provides advertisers with a way to easily and rapidly promote their brand or message on the Internet and monitor the results in real time. Users also have the option to insert a QR scan code on the content. The codes are scanable by any other iFramed app user and both the viewer and the poster receive bonus credit. iFramed can track scanning providing additional data on who has posted and who has seen the content.

For advertisers, iFramed provides the opportunity for their messages to become viral on social media in only few minutes. Users who post pictures or videos on their smartphone select the social media site(s) they want to post on, choose an advertiser's campaign, add comments and all is uploaded to their selected social media accounts in real-time. Users can post to one or several of their social media accounts at the same time.  Furthermore users can indicate if content is specifically relevant to an advertiser's campaign for additional credit. Relevance can be for example, a photo containing the advertiser's product. Advertisers can opt to have content reviewed by iFramed for campaign relevance or general appropriateness. This occurs with minimal time delay.

iFramed is simple and effective for advertisers.  Advertisers can develop and change their own campaign in minutes using a powerful back office interface including the ability to set spending limits and campaign parameters. Advertisers are given full flexibility including how they want to target their campaign. They can choose parameters which include geographical location, specific target audience and other demographics. And all campaign results can be monitored in real time.

iFramed also has several automatized systems to monitor where the content has been subsequently posted and the survivability of the links. iFramed messages have a long life, while traditional Internet ads last a few seconds and have to be repeated, iFramed assisted social media posted messages last for years while embedded in the content. Therefore campaigns monitor who and how many other people are viewing and where they are located, providing even more data to the advertiser.

Which advertisers are ultimately presented to a specific user is based on the geo-location and the advanced specific demographic information and sorted by suggested sponsors, top payers per post or simply user's favorites. Therefore the sponsor options are very specific to each iFramed user. iFramed provides highly accurate and valuable user information to the advertiser as the redemption process necessitates the collection of accurate data from the user.

iFramed also has an Auto-Ad™ system where users can authorized specific advertisers to post content on their social media account and for which they receive additional rewards. When enabled by the user, the content (a graphic or video) is automatically pushed onto the sites at a pre-determined time and for a pre-determined period of time – and all with the user's personalized iFramed app. This means an advertiser can launch a message that become instantly viral on social media and also provide further credit to the user. This creates a strong and respectful relationship between the users and the advertisers and further capitalizes on the power and credibility of the message through implied endorsement and not as a detached ad or "suggested post".

iFramed also supports affinity groups and users can choose to support any group that is registered with iFramed such as NGOs, charities, schools, local sports teams and community initiatives. They can donate their iFramed credits automatically and instantly providing these organizations with a new way of quickly raising money. When users choose an affinity group, the iFramed logo is replaced with a logo of the affinity group within advertiser's campaign.

Investel continues to develop its a global patent portfolio, which claims the benefit of a early priority date of January 3, 2014, in key jurisdictions including, but not limited to, the United States, China, Australia, Japan, India, Canada and throughout Europe. 

Source:

INVESTEL CAPITAL CORPORATION
Lawry Trevor-Deutsch, Managing Partner ([email protected])

IFRAMED CANADA Ltd.
Michael Eric Schmidt ([email protected])

MERIZZI RAMSBOTTOM & FORSTER 
Andre Merizzi, Partner and Registered Patent Agent
Alistair Forster, Partner and Lawyer
(Email: [email protected])

Notes to editors: Photos available

SOURCE Investel Capital Corporation