STAMFORD, Conn. – Pitney Bowes announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Zumbox alleging that Zumbox's "paperless mail" service for consumers infringes Pitney Bowes patents. The lawsuit was filed today in California Central District Court and seeks, among other things, to enjoin Zumbox from further infringement.

"Pitney Bowes has been active in the acquisition, development and deployment of multi-channel messaging solutions, including those based on the platforms acquired from Alysis in 2000, Group 1 Software in 2004, and Emtex in 2006," said Bernie Gracy, Vice President, Strategy and New Business Development, Pitney Bowes. "We continue to invest in these platforms and our intellectual property to introduce new physical and electronic messaging offerings as part of our longstanding Customer Communications Management strategy."

Traditionally known for its expertise in physical mail, Pitney Bowes has expanded its capabilities to include critical online communications solutions that link to and run in parallel with physical communications. It invested more than $200 million in research and development in 2008, with much of that total dedicated to software products. The company ranks #107 in Software magazine's annual list of the 500 largest software companies. Its online technologies are already used by companies worldwide to communicate with their customers quickly and effectively.

The legal action centers on three U.S. patents: #7,478,140, "A System and Method for Sending Electronic Mail and Parcel Delivery Notification Using Recipient's Identification Information"; #6,690,773, "Recipient Control Over Aspects of Incoming Messages"; and #7,058,586, "Information Delivery System for Providing Senders with a Recipient's Messaging Preferences."