CoolSavings Settles E-coupon Lawsuit; More Pending
CoolSavings.com Inc., Chicago, and digital direct marketer emaildirect inc., have settled a patent infringement lawsuit filed 14 months ago by CoolSavings.
The settlement is the third in a number of suits filed by CoolSavings since it patented its “system of distribution and processing of electronic certificates” business model in 1998, said Tom Scavone, from the law firm Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro which represents CoolSavings.
“We entered into a settlement agreement that allows us to do exactly what we’re doing already and what we plan to do in the future,” said Sandy Brooks, CFO of emaildirect. “So to us it made a lot of business sense to settle and get out of the lawsuit.”
The suit alleged that emaildirect’s Value-mail, an opt-in, biweekly shared mailer of coupons and other offers sent to 500,000 subscribers via e-mail, had infringed on Coolsavings electronic certificate patent, Scavone said.
While CoolSavings, a provider of online marketing services, reserved the right to refile charges, it decided to resolve the suit after determining–through Web research firms such as Media Matrix–that emaildirect was not among the top Internet players, Scavone said.
As a term of the settlement, emaildirect agreed that the patent was valid and enforceable and that it would not challenge the validity of the patent in court or elsewhere, Scavone said.
In turn, emaildirect was permitted to continue its business with the settlement limiting the number of data points to six–such as age, gender and zip code–that emaildirect could select to target its offers.
Since CoolSavings received its patent in June 1998, it has filed nine infringement lawsuits. A suit against both ivillage.com and Coupon Surfer was settled last year. Suits remain pending against Catalina Marketing, Hot Coupons, IQ Commerce, Planet U, Brightstreet.com and Ecentives, Scavone said.
