By Vin Gurrieri

Law360, New York (October 04, 2011, 5:11 PM ET) -- A patent licensing company sued Best Buy Co. Inc. on Friday in Illinois federal court, alleging that the retail giant's text message notification system violated three mobile alert patents.

Helferich Patent Licensing LLC accused Best Buy of sending customers millions of infringing text messages with embedded links to company-sponsored content in violation of U.S. Patent Numbers 7,835,757; 7,499,716; and 7,280,838.

“Best Buy purposefully directs its infringing activities to [Illinois] residents by causing infringing messages to be sent to [these] residents,” the complaint said. “As a direct...