The Plano-based company that runs court document systems in Texas, Georgia, Florida and California was hit with a patent infringement lawsuit by a company that's sued at least 17 others since 2018.

The lawsuit by Akoloutheo LLC, a Frisco-based company run by a sole operator, Rochelle Burns, takes issue with Tyler Technology Inc.'s software applications, dataXchange and Tyler Content Manager, which allow the public to search for and retrieve case information, documents and images stored in the cloud.

Texas has contracted with Tyler since 2012 to use its Odyssey software to operate EFileTexas.gov, the statewide electronic filing system. Since 2017, Tyler has provided the tech behind re:SearchTX, which is the state's court record search and retrieval system, similar to the federal courts' PACER.gov system. Tyler also services courts and justice systems in 21 other states, including Georgia and California and multiple counties in Florida, according to a company brochure.

Tyler's software allegedly infringes on Akoloutheo's patent, issued in 2008, for a method and system that processes transactions between information services and applications, according to the Nov. 11 complaint in Akoloutheo v. Tyler Technologies Inc., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman. The plaintiff is seeking a judgment that says Tyler has infringed on its patent, a permanent injunction to stop the alleged infringement, and damages, costs, expenses pre- and postjudgment interest and attorney fees.

Tyler spokeswoman Nina Minney declined to comment.

"Tyler has not been served with the referenced lawsuit," she said.

According to Tyler's website, the company had $935 million in annual revenue in 2018 and employs more than 5,000 people. In addition to providing technology and software for courts across the country, it also services the public administration and education sectors, among others. In one year, 4.3 million people use Tyler's systems to submit payments, file court documents and do other e-services. Odyssey File & Serve, the company's e-filing and case management software system, processes 167 million e-filed pages each year.

About Akoloutheo

A PACER searched revealed that Akoloutheo has filed 18 patent infringement lawsuits since 2018 against many tech companies such as Intuit Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Oracle America Inc., Symantec Corp. and more.

Case dockets show the parties settled seven of those cases. In eights cases, Akoloutheo moved to dismiss its claims with prejudice before the defendants had even filed answers. In two case, the defendants filed answers and counterclaims against Akoloutheo, but then both parties moved to dismiss their claims with prejudice.

Frisco solo practitioner Ronald Burns, who represents the plaintiff, noted that in some of the cases that were dismissed with prejudice, there was a settlement, but the defendant requested that Akoloutheo refrain from filing a notice of settlement publicly.

"The company is a nonpracticing entity that is licensing this patent, and it's part of their licensing campaign," explained Burns.

Some people call nonpracticing entities "patent trolls," a term that patent litigator Michael Smith said he never uses because it's derogatory. Some federal judges have even banned the term in court, he noted.

Smith said that 18 patent infringement lawsuits by a nonpracticing entity is not an unusual number. The fact that so many of Akoloutheo's cases settled so early, he added, may indicate the defendants wanted to avoid the nuisance of litigation. When a defendant truly wants to license the plaintiff's technology, it takes more time to flesh out details about the patent.

The cases' dockets can't answer questions about the value of Akoloutheo's patent, he said.

"I can't tell if the patents are any good, and I can't tell if it's a shakedown campaign or not,"  explained Smith, partner-in-charge of Siebman, Forrest, Burg & Smith's Marshall office. "I can't tell what's happening: if it's based on the merits of the patents, or based on nuisance settlements, to get the cases to go away."

Read the complaint: