Claria Corp. countersued L.L.Bean June 3 in response to complaints in May by the cataloger/retailer against Nordstrom, J.C. Penney, Atkins Nutritionals and Gevalia Kaffee. Bean charged that the firms placed pop-up ads on its commerce site (www.llbean.com).

Bean’s four lawsuits, filed in Portland, ME, indicated that spyware software from Claria was used to track the activities of online consumers.

In a statement, Claria characterized Bean’s initial lawsuit as “a baseless resort to sham litigation.”

According to Claria, its own lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Claria alleges “L.L. Bean understands that Claria advertisers buy ‘category’ targeting based on consumer behavior and not on trademarks, undercutting their major claim about trademark infringement.”

Furthermore, Nordstrom and J.C. Penney have not used Redwood City, CA-based Claria’s services for more than one and a half to three years, the statement continued.

As for Atkins Nutritionals and Gevalia Kaffee, “one has never been a Claria customer and the other has never purchased ad inventory in the apparel category for the ads to be shown directly to L.L.Bean consumers.”

L.L.Bean spokeswoman MaryRose McKinnon said her firm had “not been served or given a courtesy copy of the complaint. Our first notice was Claria’s press release.

“We were able to get a copy of the complaint from the court, and our lawyers are studying the allegations,” McKinnon continued.

Separately, Mary Lou Kelley, L.L. Bean’s vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement: “We are not at all surprised that Claria would sue us in response to our efforts to protect our trademark.

“Given the form of their business, Claria is naturally a very litigious operation.”

“L.L.Bean plans to vigorously press its trademark infringement complaints, and we will be equally as vigorous in defending against this latest maneuver by Claria,” Kelley continued. “We have every right to protect the L.L.Bean trademark against those companies that use pop-up ads on our Web site.”

L.L.Bean claimed to have survey data that demonstrates “considerable consumer confusion around the nature and source of pop-up advertisement technology. These surveys reveal that the vast majority of consumers do not know how spyware gets on their computers, do not want to receive pop-up ads, think less of Web sites that are plagued by pop-up ads, and do not know how to get rid of the pop-up ads.”

Claria Corp. filed a counterclaim June 3 against cataloger L.L.Bean, according to a Claria statement. In May, L.L.Bean filed individual complaints against Nordstrom, JC Penney, Atkins and Gevalia, alleging that the firms placed popup ads on its commerce site, http://www.llbean.com.

The four court lawsuits launched by L.L.Bean, which were filed in Portland, ME, indicated that spyware software from Claria was used to track online consumers’ activities.

While copies of the court papers were not available, Claria characterized the Freeport, ME-based cataloger’s initial lawsuit as “a baseless resort to sham litigation, all part of its unsuccessful litigation strategy against Claria” in a release.

According to Claria, its own lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Claria alleges “L.L. Bean understands that Claria advertisers buy ‘category’ targeting based on consumer behavior and not on trademarks – undercutting their major claim about trademark infringement.”

Furthermore, Nordstrom and JC Penney have not used Redwood City, CA-based Claria services for over 1.5 to three years, the statement continued. As for Atkins Nutritionals and Gevalia Kaffee, “one has never been a Claria customer and the other has never purchased ad inventory in the apparel category for the ads to be show directly to L.L.Bean consumers.”

MaryRose McKinnon, a spokesperson for L.L.Bean, said her firm had “not been served or given a courtesy copy of the complaint. Our first notice was Claria’s press release.

“We were able to get a copy of the complaint from the court, and our lawyers are studying the allegations,” McKinnon continued.

Separately, Mary Lou Kelley, L.L.Bean’s company’s vice president of e-commerce said “We are not at all surprised that Claria would sue us in response to our efforts to protect our trademark. Given the form of their business, Claria is naturally a very litigious operation,” in a statement.

Kelley continued, “L.L.Bean plans to vigorously press its trademark infringement complaints, and we will be equally as vigorous in defending against this latest maneuver by Claria,” she added. “We have every right to protect the L.L.Bean trademark against those companies that use pop-up ads on our website.”

L.L.Bean claimed to have survey data that demonstrates “considerable consumer confusion around the nature and source of pop-up advertisement technology. These surveys reveal that the vast majority of consumers do not know how spyware gets on their computers, do not want to receive pop-up ads, think less of web sites that are plagued by pop-up ads, and do not know how to get rid of the pop-up ads.”