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 meet the principal of L&A Consultants Limited, a UK consultancy, who agrees to find investment for Secure ID in return for a share of the resulting venture. L&A has a family connection into Huf.
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 - Three fraudulent appointment filings at Companies House
Forms appointing Michael Greaves as an officer of Spaggetti Limited are filed on 17 October 2011, 9 January 2012 and 8 October 2013, without his knowledge or consent. The consent data for the last of them was a phone number, an incorrect place of birth and an incorrect eye colour. Detail.
Companies House correspondence, May 2014 · 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.
Our record · invoices held - Huf removes L&A from the JV; Spaggetti becomes Autovators
Huf removes L&A from its shareholding in Huf Secure Mobile Ltd; the L&A-side directors resign on 20 December. On 19 December Spaggetti Limited is renamed Autovators Limited. It files its last accounts to January 2014 and is dissolved in February 2016.
Companies House (JV) · Companies House (Autovators) · public record - Huf relies on the L&A/Spaggetti ownership claim and stops paying
Huf discloses that L&A and Spaggetti now claim to own Secure ID, supported by an affidavit that it was developed while their staff were at a previous employer, and by the register entries naming Michael Greaves as their officer. 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 expunges every entry
On the inventors’ application, the Registrar removes all record of Michael Greaves from the Spaggetti register. Companies House confirms the expungement 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 and 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. Publication stands as prior art.
Google Patents · public record - Huf Secure Mobile Ltd and Autovators Ltd dissolved
The UK joint venture company and the renamed Spaggetti company are both struck off on the same day.
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 - 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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