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3 March 2016Patents

IBM lines up Groupon in patent claim

Technology company IBM has accused online deals website Groupon of infringing four patents.

In the complaint, filed yesterday, March 2, IBM said Groupon has infringed its patents through websites under Groupon’s control and its app.

Two of the four patents, US numbers 5,796,967 and 5,961,601, are more than 15 years old.

The ‘967 patent tracks previous conversations online between a web user and a merchant, and the ‘601 patent covers technology related to web performance.

IBM also accused Groupon of infringing US patent number 7,072,849, issued in 2006, which covers technology related to online advertising, and US patent number 7,631,346, which protects technology that makes it easier for web users to connect to an internet provider.

All four patents were asserted by IBM against travel website manager The Priceline Group last year.

According to the most recent complaint, IBM has made repeated attempts to negotiate a licence with Groupon but the company has refused to take one.

Earlier this year, WIPR reported that IBM had topped the list of recipients of US patents in 2015. IBM was granted 7,355 patents in the calendar year, a slight dip compared to 2014’s total of 7,534. However, the company still topped the list for the 23rd year in succession.

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More on this story

Patents
13 January 2016   Technology company IBM has topped the list of recipients of US patents in 2015, beating Samsung and Canon to the top spot, but there has been a slight decline in the overall number of patents granted since 2014.
Patents
10 February 2015   Technology and consulting multinational IBM has sued The Priceline Group, which manages travel websites such as priceline.com, for allegedly infringing four patents, two of which are more than 15 years old.
Patents
10 May 2016   Online marketplace Groupon has sued IBM for patent infringement in a lawsuit centring on technology that helps to attract customers based on their location.