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
[…] - Linkshare Recap: Revenue Today - Loyalty Affiliates Hit with Patent Infringement Suit: AffiliateFairPlay - Microsoft / Yahoo! […]
Pingback by Affiliate Fortune Cookies » Blog Archive » Lost Weekend — February 1, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
[…] - Linkshare Recap: Revenue Today - Loyalty Affiliates Hit with Patent Infringement Suit: AffiliateFairPlay - Microsoft / Yahoo! […]
Pingback by Affiliate Fortune Cookies Episode 22: Lost Weekend : GeekCast.fm — February 4, 2008 @ 4:20 pm
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
so far the best affiliate program for me is Amazon Affiliate. they have high tier rates and great payout “,*
Comment by L-Lysine %0A — December 4, 2010 @ 12:27 am
It is obvious that the PTO examiners are no match for the lawyers who draw up these patents. If the examiners were doing their jobs, they would refuse all of these patents based on these issues. I also want to point out that one major patent holder in this area had one of their ex-employees working at the PTO office when their patent was rewritten to cover more ground of their competitors or potential competitors:
1) Coupons and Rebates have been totally branded as ‘held in common by buyers and sellers’. Any patent that builds on ‘coupons and rebates’ should be disallowed as not novel. Find the person or persons who started coupons and rebates and make these sue happy patent holders pay them billions in past due fees.
2. Catalina Marketing has the original online patent for coupons and rebates with its ‘log-in patent’. And then, when one combines their patent with Amazon’s ‘one click patent’, that pretty much covers the core of all online affiliated patents. Kudos to Catalina for not bending everybody over with their patents, and kudos to those who noticed that this lawsuit leaves out the most profitable similar companies.
Comment by Dam Ba — April 12, 2011 @ 7:47 pm
You will discover certainly a lot of particulars this way take into consideration. That may be a pleasant point out present upwards. My partner and i provide ideas above because standard enthusiasm nonetheless evidently there are concerns similar to the a single a person carry way up in which a extremely effective point is usually getting work done in trustworthy excellent trust. I don’t determine if best practices include come about around problems like that, nevertheless sure that your career can be clearly labeled as a good online game. Each girls and boys think the affect of just a new moment delight, for the remainder of their life.
Comment by New Era Hats Cheap — July 9, 2011 @ 11:08 pm
Throughout the awesome design of things you receive a B- just for effort. Where you actually misplaced me personally was in the facts. As people say, the devil is in the details… And it could not be more accurate right here. Having said that, allow me say to you exactly what did do the job. The writing is certainly really engaging and that is probably the reason why I am taking an effort to comment. I do not make it a regular habit of doing that. Next, while I can easily see a leaps in reason you come up with, I am definitely not sure of how you appear to connect your points which inturn produce your final result. For the moment I will, no doubt yield to your issue but hope in the foreseeable future you actually connect the facts better.
Comment by Luther Cummer — July 31, 2011 @ 7:49 pm
The site is superb. It is undoubtedly going up as a recommendation to my readership. Here’s the latest bit of information that your readership might find out of this world. I really can’t believe they would let the cat out of the bag on this one. If you are into WoW, you have to check this out. I was absolutly shocked when I saw it!
Comment by Terri Burriss — September 30, 2011 @ 1:15 am
I got what you specify, thanks for putting up. Woh I am happy to perceive this website finished google. Thanks For Share » Major Loyalty Affiliates Hit With Patent Infringement Lawsuit.
Comment by Constipation remedies — October 11, 2011 @ 9:14 am
Correct wow messages are bound to show your and supply memorialize the speacial couple. Beginner sound system to high in volume crowds should always take a appear at all of the great value behind presenting and public speaking, which is to be someone’s truck. very best man speeches brother
Comment by Guaranteed Search Engine Ranking — October 25, 2011 @ 6:13 pm
Have you ever considered about including a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is important and everything. However think about if you added some great pictures or video clips to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and video clips, this blog could undeniably be one of the very best in its niche. Wonderful blog!
Comment by Wanda Buchler — November 8, 2011 @ 11:00 pm
Together with every thing which seems to be building within this specific subject matter, many of your points of view are somewhat exciting. However, I beg your pardon, but I do not give credence to your whole plan, all be it exciting none the less. It looks to us that your remarks are not completely validated and in simple fact you are generally your self not wholly certain of your point. In any event I did appreciate examining it.
Comment by 湖南美食 — December 29, 2011 @ 7:00 am
Hi I am so grateful I found your weblog, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Yahoo for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a marvelous post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don抰 have time to browse it all at the minute but I have saved it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the fantastic job.
Comment by mass fax — January 9, 2012 @ 8:56 pm
One of the very first things that I learned when coming here (the second time ’round).In fact, it was acd who taught me that.
Comment by Fck me — January 17, 2012 @ 11:51 am
Greetings! Quick question that’s entirely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My blog looks weird when viewing from my iphone 4. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to fix this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. Thanks!
Comment by Keila Graddy — January 29, 2012 @ 5:16 pm
Hey would you mind letting me know which web host you’re working with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a honest price? Kudos, I appreciate it!
Comment by seo — January 31, 2012 @ 12:29 pm