Catalina Marketing Corp., St. Petersburg, FL, and Fuel Marketing Solutions Inc. (FMS), Dallas, have settled a patent infringement and unfair competition suit.
As part of the settlement, Catalina granted a license to Fuel Marketing Solutions allowing the company to continue its rewards marketing programs. In turn, FMS acknowledged both the validity of Catalina’s patents and the fact that it had violated those patents. According to the statement, FMS will continue to roll out its Fuel Rewards program nationally.
According to papers filed by Catalina on March 22 in the United States District Court, Central District of California, FMS offered a fuel purchase rewards system for sale that infringed on three patents held by loyalty marketing firm Catalina to at least one major grocery retailer. FMS also represented that it owned the patents to the technology it was offering, the papers said.
Two of the patents in question support a system that prints coupons at the point of purchase in response to consumer purchase patterns. The system also allowed for instantly redeemable coupons, and potential generation of coupons without printing them for the purposes of marketing analyses.
The third describes a system that would print a coupon, usually for an item not purchased, in response to a customer’s purchases. The patent describes a system that includes a checkout terminal, a store controller, and a file for storing the terms of the deal.
At the time of the original filing, Catalina estimated that its damages were in excess of $75,000 in lost sales.
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