Seattle (WA) - Atlantic Mutual Insurance is suing its client, Amazon.com, because it claims that a lawsuit brought against the site last year is not covered under its liability policy.

Last October, IBM sued Amazon, alleging that part of the site's infrastructure was based on patents owned by IBM. Two separate lawsuits were filed, one of which is still ongoing.

Amazon owns three liability policies from Atlantic Mutual, but the insurance provider claims that the events referenced in the lawsuit occured before Amazon's coverage began.  In other words, the policy was not purchased until after Amazon allegedly had already infringed on IBM's patents.  The other coverage Amazon owns protection against, "advertising injury", is not applicable to this case, claims Atlantic Mutual.

The insurance company isn't asking for monetary damages, but it does want a federal judge to declare that it is not responsible for covering Amazon in the IBM case.  Atlantic Mutual's case was filed in a Tyler, TX federal court on March 2, where it is still awaiting an official hearing.