A Boca Raton e-mail marketer is suing InfoUSA, alleging the Omaha-based data and marketing services giant has infringed on its patent for managing bulk e-mail distribution.
What’s more, the plaintiff seems to have a wide swath of the commercial e-mail industry in its crosshairs.
Filed by Perfect Web Technologies in U.S. District Court in Miami yesterday, the suit accuses InfoUSA of “willful and intentional” infringement of its patent, No. 6,631,400, and asks for unspecified damages and attorneys fees.
According to the patent’s description, it is a method of transmitting bulk e-mail to a specific profile of opt-in recipients and repeating the profiling-and-sending process until a certain volume of e-mails have been successfully delivered.
Perfect Web Technologies’ chief executive, Thomas DiStefano, said he believes the patent applies to anyone managing a successful opt-in e-mail marketing program.
“We believe that it covers the logical steps that a successful enterprise in the opt-in industry would have to follow,” he said. “I believe successful businesses have to follow certain practices. I believe this patent covers those practices.”
DiStefano said he first contacted with InfoUSA on this matter two years ago. He added that his company has also contacted other firms he believes are infringing on his patent, but declined to name them.
“A few of the major players in the industry have been contacted and we will be contacting the industry at large for licensing and business opportunities,” DiStefano said.
John Longwell, InfoUSA’s staff counsel, said DiStefano approached the firm in 2005 to propose a joint venture of some sort and that InfoUSA did not pursue it.
“Just recently, he [DiStefano] hired a law firm which specializes in patent litigation to try and monetize some of his patents,” said Longwell. “Apparently, they’ve had a shift in their business plan from trying to do something productive with their patents to trying to sue other folks over them. We had an opportunity to take a look at the patent and we don’t see how it’s relevant to out business.”
Longwell added: “We obviously don’t think we’re infringing and we’re going to defend the lawsuit fully.”
Meanwhile, DiStefano said he chose to start with InfoUSA because: “You start at the top. They’re the biggest and best and they’re practicing in our area, using our technology.”
