Tumbleweed Communications Corp. announced that it has settled a patent infringement lawsuit with service providers DST Systems Inc. and NewRiver Inc. Tumbleweed said the two companies have agreed to pay a significant initial undisclosed amount and a royalty of four cents per delivery of electronic information.

The lawsuit (C 02-05087 JF) was brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against a customer of NewRiver and DST. Tumbleweed Communications Corp. is a provider of secure messaging applications for businesses and government organizations using the Internet

"We are encouraged by the settlement and will continue to enforce Tumbleweed's patents in two additional lawsuits we filed, Tumbleweed v. PayPal, Inc. and Tumbleweed v. Yahoo!, Inc., as well as through private licensing efforts," said Bernard J. Cassidy, Tumbleweed's Vice President and General Counsel.