‘Relic’ IBM faces Groupon patent infringement complaint
Online marketplace Groupon has sued IBM for patent infringement in a lawsuit centring on technology that helps to attract customers based on their location.
The complaint, filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, comes just two months after IBM accused Groupon of patent infringement in a separate lawsuit centring on four patents related to online advertising and communications.
The patent, US number 78,563,60, called “System for providing a service to venues where people aggregate,” was approved in 2010.
Groupon claimed IBM’s WebSphere Commerce product, which allows businesses to use customers’ locations to send them marketing messages, violates the patent.
“IBM, a relic of once-great 20th century technology firms, has now resorted to usurping the intellectual property of companies born this millennium,” the complaint said.
The four patents asserted against Groupon earlier this year were also filed against travel website manager The Priceline Group last year.
In January, 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.
