Internet-based discount provider Groupon may
be hailed as the fastest growing company ever but it has found
itself in hot water with the courts yet again after its counter
patent lawsuit against rival MobGob was rejected.
The current lawsuit is in retaliation to
MobGob filing a patent lawsuit against Groupon in September 2009
where it claimed the Groupon was infringing upon an ‘897 patent,
which is exclusively licensed to MobGob.
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The patent in question is entitled ‘Method of
Community Purchasing through the Internet,’ and details a
network-connected group-buying system where a ‘deal’ must reach a
preset number of buyers for the ‘deal’ to be activated.
The United States District Court in the
Central District of California found all Groupon’s interpretations
of the patent in question were deemed unnecessary.
“MobGob’s infringing activities have damaged
and will continue to damage Groupon,” said Groupon in the filed
complaint in November 2010.
“Unless MobGob is stopped from using the
invention, the company will continue “causing harm to Groupon’s
business, market, reputation and goodwill.”
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By GlobalDataMobGob claims it feels vindicated by the claim
construction ruling and believes this will go some way to proving
it is not a ‘patent troll’ – a company that files aggressive patent
lawsuits with no intention to manufacture or market the patent
invention – and that it and its predecessor BlendBucks were
the true innovators, implementing the patent for more than a year
before Groupon were online.
“MobGob is a real business where the owners of
the patent are practicing their patented invention,” said Scott
Chung, one of the original founders of MobGob and inventors of the
‘897 patent.
“Applied for more than 10 years ago, this
invention was seen as innovative and granted by the United States
Patent and Trademark Office. It is this invention that MobGob has
always used ever since it first offered gift cards on
Blendbucks.”
MobGob plans to press forward with its demand
for an injunction against Groupon to cease their infringing
group-buying activity.
