Major Loyalty Affiliates Hit With Patent Infringement Lawsuit
It seems that a lawsuit was filed in Texas Eastern District Court on January 23, 2007 by Source Inc. alleging patent infringement related to a “Centralized Consumer Cash Value Accumulation System for Multiple Merchants”. Translation: loyalty/rebate system. Source Inc is saying they have the patent of others doing loyalty/rebate systems are infringing on their patent.
Listed as defendants in the suit are:
Access Development Corporation
bCorner.com, Inc.
Belcaro Group, Inc. (ShopAtHome)
Big Co-Op, Inc.
Intefral Technologies, Inc.
77BlueLLC (David Lewis)
Ebates Shopping.com, Inc.
Electronic Scrip Incorporated
The Ezshoppen Company
FatWallet.com, Inc. (Tim Storm)
iGive.com Holdings, LLC,
JellyFish, Inc. (recently purchased by M$)
Jet Set Joe Corporation
Little Grad, Inc.
MBC Direct, LLC
Mall Networks, Inc.
Misermart.com, Inc.
Mezl Media, Inc. (owned by ValueClick)
Mothers Work, Inc.
OC Rebates
Pinnacle Communications International, Inc.
Qdeals, Inc.
QuickRewards Network, Inc.
Shop.com
Simplicity Group, LLC
Spree.com Corporation
Tricordia, LLC
Tuition Fund, LLC
Webloyalty.com, Inc.
Zions First National Bank
Alliance Card, Inc.
Family Network, Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Golden Retriver Systems, LLC
Summit State Bank
Nietech Corporation
U.S. Bancorp
U.S. Bank
I’m sure many will recognize several of the thirty-eight defendents on that list. Source Inc may not be done with the list of defendents yet as there is mention of “similar programs whose identities are not yet known”.
Source Inc is also seeking an injunction against each defendent.
Ok, so patent cases are filed, won and lost every day. But “wow” was my initial reaction.
I’m not sure if they are naming any loyalty/rebate program which tracks across multiple merchants or just ones with certain technology or what.
I haven’t read through the patents yet, but this is certainly going to be interesting.
References:
The SouthEast Texas Record (the content on this page may change. Scroll down to Source Inc vs Access Development Corp. et al)
Justia
US Patent Office Search Returns
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Looks like the PTO rubber stamped another trivial patent application. Even if these companies aren’t found to be violating the patent it will cost them thousands - (if not more) - to deal with this mess. Very sad…
Comment by Jeremy Palmer — March 4, 2008 @ 5:46 pm
Companies should definitely have the right to protect their work. But the PTO is somewhat of a..err..mess? And patent law is worse than tax law. This one does seem sad to me for the exact reasons you say Jeremy.
CompareRewards had a bit more info about these suits. Seems this isn’t the first time Source Inc has done this. I was wondering why some notable companies weren’t on the list, like UPromise. Source Inc already played with them in 2004.
Comment by Kellie AFP — March 4, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
Wonder if that applies to Lindens (fiat money)
Thanks…interesting.
-wayne
Comment by Wayne Porter — March 8, 2008 @ 2:03 am