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Harbour House Aruba

Monday
February 18, 2019
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Return to sender: High court to hear undeliverable mail case

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch Hungerpiller thought he had
a first-class solution for mail that gets returned as undeliv-
erable, a common problem for businesses that send lots
of letters.
But the process he helped develop and built his small
Alabama technology company around has resulted in a
more than decadelong fight with the U.S. Postal Service,
which says his solution shouldn’t have been patentable.
The David vs. Goliath dispute has now arrived at the Su-
preme Court. On Tuesday, the justices will hear Hung-
erpiller’s case, which involves parsing the meaning of a
2011 patent law.
“All I want is a fair shake,” said Hungerpiller, who lives in
Birmingham and is a father of three.
Hungerpiller, 56, started thinking seriously about returned
mail in 1999 when he was doing computer consulting Mitch Hungerpiller of Birmingham, Ala., who invented a computerized system to automate the
processing of returned mail, visits the Supreme Court in Washington, on Feb. 14, 2019, where his
work. decade-long fight with the post office over patent infringement will be heard.
Continued on Page 3 Associated Press