Timeline
From a 2006 design to Huf’s Phone as a Key
Entries marked public record link to a document anyone can read. Entries marked our record rest on documents we hold, most of them contemporaneous, and provide on request.
- Identity, security and encryption work begins
Michael Greaves works in identity, security and encryption systems; this is the domain the later access system grew out of.
Our record - Concept originates
First design of a system, later called Secure ID, that uses a person’s phone, verified against a central authenticator, to open a physical access device.
Our record - System validated
The design is built out and validated end to end: authenticator, user device, access device, token matching. All research, development and professional fees are funded by EUS Associates Ltd, the inventors’ company.
Our record - L&A Consultants engaged to find investors
The inventors, who already knew the principal of L&A Consultants Limited, a UK consultancy, meet him and he agrees to find investment for Secure ID in return for a share of the resulting venture. L&A’s principal is the brother-in-law of Huf’s head of product development, which is how the introduction is made.
Our record - First meeting with Huf
At a serviced office at Heathrow, introduced by L&A, the inventors present Secure ID to Huf representatives. Huf sets two conditions: it will deal with a single entity, and the IP must be capable of patent protection. The inventors confirm patent advice has been taken and an application is in preparation.
Our record - Presentation at Huf, Velbert
Secure ID is introduced to a wider Huf audience, including a brief introduction to Huf’s chairman.
Our record - Confidentiality agreement signed
The inventors sign a confidentiality agreement with L&A. A side document acknowledges Secure ID as pre-existing, as belonging to the inventors, and as “patent in progress”. The agreement excludes any right to own, disclose, market, transfer, license or sell the IP without the inventors’ signed consent.
Our record · agreement held - Second meeting with Huf, Velbert
More technical detail is given. Huf and L&A agree to move to a memorandum of understanding for a joint venture.
Our record - Huf and L&A sign the MoU
A joint venture with two business streams: L&A’s existing fleet telematics product with a Huf telematics box, and Secure ID, subject to a proof of concept demonstrating that it works.
Our record · MoU held - Master Agreement for the joint venture
Huf and L&A sign the Master Agreement establishing Huf Secure Mobile Ltd. Separately, only the signature page of a “body-shop” staffing contract between L&A and Spaggetti is shown to the inventors.
Our record · Master Agreement held - Huf Secure Mobile Limited incorporated in the UK
Company 08345977. Directors: Sven Gennermann and Helmut Janus, appointed by Huf; Philip Martin Shaw and Adrian McMullan for the L&A side. Huf begins paying in its share capital.
Companies House · public record - Proof of concept begins
The Secure ID proof of concept formally starts under the joint venture, with development staff supplied through Spaggetti, described to the JV board as a body-shop contractor on day rates.
Our record - GB2516939A filed
EUS Associates Ltd files “Access authorisation system and secure data communications system”, naming Phillip Martin Shaw and Michael James Greaves as inventors.
Google Patents · public record - UK trade mark filed on the L&A/Spaggetti side
A week after the patent application, a UK trade mark application (UK00003018462) is filed with a class 9 specification covering automobiles and security access and control devices. Only L&A knew of the patent application at that point.
UK IPO · public record - Seven filings in Michael Greaves’s name at Companies House
Between 17 October 2011 and 8 October 2013 seven forms are filed for Spaggetti Limited in his name, without his knowledge or consent: three appointments as director, one as secretary, two terminations and a change of particulars. They are filed through the company’s accountants, whose Chester office is its registered address and one of whose team, John Hunt, becomes a Spaggetti director in February 2013; the first is made while he is abroad. The annual return filed on 8 October 2013, still on the public record, lists him as a director and as holder of 24 per cent of the shares. The consent data for the last filing was a phone number, a place of birth and an eye colour, all three wrong. Detail.
Companies House correspondence, May 2014 · held - “Work in progress” demonstration
A work-in-progress demonstration of the Secure ID proof of concept is held on 25 September 2013 with Huf’s representative present, three weeks before the contractual milestone. The debrief minutes of 26 September are circulated to the inventors and are held; their technical content will be published once both inventors have reviewed them.
Our record · minutes held - Huf plans the joint venture’s future with Michael Greaves in the room
At a resource planning meeting in Velbert on 8 October 2013, Huf’s telematics product development manager thanks the attendees, Michael Greaves among them, “for your time and ideas today” and circulates the joint venture’s resource plan. The next morning a Huf colleague asks Michael Greaves and L&A’s representative to “add your thoughts on future S/W architecture until 2018” to Huf’s telematics roadmap. The joint venture’s five-year cost plan, prepared the same week, lists his costs for “proposed Secure ID R&D” as an input still needed. Fifteen days later Huf raises the Companies House entries.
Our record · emails held - Huf signs off the proof of concept
Huf’s appointed directors of the JV come to London to see Secure ID demonstrated at the contractual milestone and sign it off as working. Sven Gennermann and Helmut Janus are present.
Our record · sign-off held - Huf raises the false directorships
At a meeting in Velbert, the Huf directors point to Companies House listings showing Michael Greaves as an officer of Spaggetti and raise a conflict of interest. This is the first he knows of the filings. On a call during the meeting, Spaggetti’s managing director confirms its contract with L&A was a sub-contract negotiated exclusively between the two of them.
Our record - Reported to police and Companies House
The inventors report suspected identity theft and fraud to Action Fraud and to Companies House, and inform Huf.
Our record · reports held - Meeting at Huf’s German lawyers
The inventors meet Huf’s directors at the offices of Huf’s retained corporate lawyers and put before them the Companies House listings, the police report, the signed confidentiality agreement and the side document recording the origin of the IP.
Our record - Invoices to Huf for services never performed
Spaggetti and L&A continue to invoice the JV for Michael Greaves’s services and expenses, at more than £7,000 a month plus VAT. He performed no services for either company and received nothing. Huf is told this in writing. In 2015 Huf Secure Mobile GmbH itself supplies copies of invoices bearing his name in answer to a subject access request.
Our record · invoices held · ICO decision of 4 December 2015 - Huf removes L&A from the JV; Spaggetti becomes Autovators
Huf removes L&A from its shareholding in Huf Secure Mobile Ltd, telling the inventors it did so for dishonesty; the L&A-side directors resign on 20 December. Spaggetti Limited becomes Autovators Limited: the members pass the special resolution on 18 December, the day before Huf acts, and it is filed and certified on the 19th. The company files its last accounts to January 2014 and is dissolved in February 2016.
Companies House (JV) · Companies House (Autovators) · public record - Huf puts £741,350 of capital into the joint venture
Four days after removing L&A, Huf Secure Mobile Ltd allots shares taking its capital to £741,350. Phillip Shaw’s termination as a director is filed on 17 January 2014.
Companies House filing history · public record - Huf relies on the L&A/Spaggetti ownership claim and stops paying
Huf discloses that L&A and Spaggetti, by then Autovators, claim to own Secure ID, supported by an affidavit from Autovators’ directors, presented with the P45 and the employee claim, and by the register entries naming Michael Greaves as their officer. The inventors have never been shown the affidavit. Huf stops paying the inventors. The inventors remind Huf in writing that the IP is theirs under the confidentiality agreement, patent or no patent.
Our record · correspondence held - Companies House removes every filing in Michael Greaves’s name as invalid
On his application the Registrar rectifies the Spaggetti register, removing the seven filings: the director appointment of 17 October 2011, a secretary appointment and a termination of 26 October 2011, a director appointment of 9 January 2012, a termination and a change of particulars of 6 January 2013, and the director appointment of 8 October 2013. The filing history carries public annotations: “removed from the register on 15/01/2014 as it was invalid”. Companies House does not investigate; asked to act in 2015, its Breaches team said the accounts of the two sides contradicted each other and it could not decide between them. Companies House confirms the expungement to him in writing on 8 May 2014. During the same period Spaggetti sends him zero-value payslips, and Autovators issues a P45 dated 31 March 2014 showing £7,051 pay and nil tax for an employment that never existed.
Companies House filing history, annotations · public record; ICO correspondence, payslips and P45 held - Huf files its own patent application in Germany
Seven months after signing off the Secure ID proof of concept, and five months after removing L&A from the JV, Huf files a German priority application for “System and method for controlling access”, naming Sven Gennermann, Daniel Bambeck and Uwe Käufer as inventors. It describes a central control platform, a mobile access device carried by the user, and an access control unit in the vehicle.
Google Patents, US10589718B2 family · public record - Cheshire Police
The inventors meet Cheshire Police and deliver an evidence pack. No action is taken.
Our record · pack held - Huf sets up Huf Secure Mobile GmbH
A new Velbert subsidiary for digital key management is registered, with Ulrich Hülsbeck as its first managing director and a control and profit-transfer agreement with Huf from 5 August 2014.
Commercial register (Amtsgericht Wuppertal HRB 25874) via North Data · public record - Huf files the international (PCT) application
PCT/EP2015/050471, later published as WO2015/176826.
Google Patents · public record - GB2516939A published
The application is published by the UK IPO and becomes citable prior art with an effective date of 7 August 2013.
Google Patents · public record - Huf announces “a new automotive technology and invention”
Huf’s website announces phone-based vehicle access as a Huf invention.
Huf website, February 2015 · copy held - Liberkee launched
Huf productises the technology under the Liberkee brand, later marketed as Phone as a Key.
Huf / Liberkee materials · copy held - GB2516939A recorded as withdrawn
The application does not proceed to grant: the inventors, unpaid since early 2014 and funding the work personally, cannot carry the cost of prosecution. Publication stands as prior art.
Google Patents · public record - The JV’s assets pass to Huf; both companies are struck off on the same day
Huf Secure Mobile Ltd’s 2014 accounts state that it “transferred its assets and liabilities to the parent company on 31 December 2014 and has ceased trading”; the ICO later records Huf’s statement that its remaining activities went to Huf Secure Mobile GmbH. Its capital is reduced from £741,350 to £1 on a solvency statement signed by Janus and Gennermann. Autovators applies for voluntary strike-off on 29 July 2015 and the JV on 20 August 2015. Michael Greaves objects to both, on 27 August and 1 September 2015, because neither company had answered his subject access requests; both strike-offs are suspended, and both companies are finally dissolved on 23 February 2016.
Companies House · Companies House · public record - Huf’s European patent granted
EP2997550B1, “Method for controlling access”. GB2516939A is not among the references considered.
Google Patents · public record - Liberkee shown in the Rinspeed Oasis concept car
The technology is integrated into the Rinspeed Oasis prototype.
Rinspeed / Huf materials - Huf’s US patent granted
US10589718B2, “System and method for controlling access”, from the same 22 May 2014 priority. GB2516939A is not among the references considered.
Google Patents · public record - Huf Secure Mobile GmbH becomes Liberkee GmbH
Sven Gennermann becomes managing director in February 2020; Huf’s control agreement ends the same month and the shares pass to Huf Beteiligungen GmbH. The company is renamed Liberkee GmbH on 3 February 2021.
Commercial register via North Data · public record - L&A Consultants changes hands, becomes Lightbulb Analytics, and is bought by Volaris
The family that owned L&A in 2011 to 2013 ceases to control it on 2 March 2018. The company is renamed Lightbulb Analytics Limited on 14 August 2020 and acquired by Volaris Group UK Holdco Ltd, part of Constellation Software Inc., on 4 August 2021; the L&A director who had sat on the joint venture board resigns the same day.
Companies House filing history · public record - Phone as a Key becomes a Huf product line
Huf secures series orders for Phone as a Key, later based on ultra-wideband ranging with NXP silicon.
Huf Group · public record - Liberkee GmbH enters liquidation
A liquidator is appointed. The liberkee brand continues at liberkee.com, describing itself as a spin-off that “emerged from the Huf Group as formerly Huf Secure Mobile”.
Commercial register via North Data · liberkee.com · public record - EU clears joint control of Huf by Huf Holding and Sodecia
The European Commission approves the acquisition of joint control of Huf Hülsbeck & Fürst GmbH & Co. KG and Huf Industrieverwaltung GmbH by Huf Holding GmbH & Co. KG and Sodecia Participações Sociais, S.G.P.S., S.A.
MarkLines · public record - Sodecia takes 30%, Rui Monteiro becomes Huf CEO
Huf announces Sodecia as a strategic minority shareholder with plans to increase its holding, a new management board and a refinancing.
Huf Group newsroom · public record - This record republished
The site formerly at hufip.com as “Huf and My IP” is restructured as Before Liberkee.
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