IBM v. Groupon: IBM bags 83 Million Dollar from Groupon in their Patent Infringement Battle

August 29,2018:

IBM, the American multinational technology company had originally filed a lawsuit against Groupon, an American worldwide e-commerce marketplace which connects subscribers with local merchants in 2016.

IBM held Groupon liable for building their online coupon business by using IBM’s inventions without any authorisation.

IBM claimed $167 million as compensation for the damages caused by Groupon for using IBM’s patents without prior permission or a proper license.

There are four patents that are claimed to have been infringed, including two patents (developed in the 1980s) for IBM's pre-internet Prodigy online communication service, which offered news, weather and sports reports.

The third patent was developed as part of the IBM's efforts to preserve state information in internet communications, and the fourth & final patent in suit relates to single-sign-on technology.

According to Groupon some of IBM’s patents should not have been granted as they were invalid. Therefore IBM’s claim for damages was unreasonable.

To this IBM gave the examples of the tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, who obtained the licenses from IBM to use the technology by paying between $20 and $50 million for the same.

IBM claims to have spent a lot in R&D investment, hence it is obvious that they want to claim over its intellectual property. This lawsuit was filed only after Groupon refused on reconciliation.

The U.S. jury has decided on July 27 to give the decision in favour of IBM and ask Groupon to pay $82.5 million as a compensation amount for infringing their patents.

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