IBM wins $83 million in patent infringement against Groupon
Groupon operates online retail marketplaces by primarily offering discounts on goods and services via the website www.groupon.com. It also uses Groupon mobile applications to participating retailers. IBM accused the defendant of having built its business by using several IBM patents. Despite repeated attempts by IBM to negotiate, Groupon has refused to enter into licensing agreements with IBM.
“IBM” filed a patent infringement suit against Groupon, Inc.
IBM alleged that Groupon infringed e-commerce patents that were previously licensed to other technology giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter. Groupon, argued that IBM overestimates the scope of protection covered by the disputed patents.
IBM’s patents describes techniques for obtaining government information and for recursively embedding status information in communication between clients and servers and program modules that modify the hypertext. IBM patents also cover a single sign-on technology, which is the basis for an authentication processes on user accounts on the Internet.
Since November 2011, IBM has sought licensing agreements with Groupon, which it rejected.
The District Court of Delaware now ruled that Groupon infringed IBM’s patents infringement and committed Groupon to pay $83 million to IBM, the payment included the high development costs claimed by IBM as well as the license revenues lost for years. Groupon has announced to consider an appeal.
