Lodsys Files Patent Suit Against 30 Companies

Lodsys, a well-known patent troll, has filed a myriad of lawsuits alleging the infringement of '078 Patent'. The abstract of the patent reads, "In an exemplary system, information is received at a central location from different units of a commodity. The information is generated from two-way local interactions between users of the different units of the commodity and a user interface in the different units of the commodity. The interactions elicit from respective users their perceptions of the commodity."

If that is confusing for you, the voluminous description of the background of the "invention" reads, in part, "One of the core purposes of the invention is... the ability to learn interactively and iteratively from the users of products and information systems anywhere in the world while they are in use—without having to travel to their sites (or without having to bring them to a testing laboratory). Since this is a two-way link, it also offers the ability to respond meaningfully to customers and users based on worldwide, local, organizational or individual needs regardless of where they are located."

The patent includes a number of uses and dozens of subsidiary claims that allow it to cover a range of functions related to consumer interaction utilized by websites across a vast range of industries, as evidenced by the complete list of companies sued in this recent Lodsys blitzkrieg:

• Bank of America Corp.
• Epicor Software Corp.
• Hoovers Inc.
• Market America Inc.
• Network Solutions
• Overstock.com Inc.
• Sleepy's
• The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.
• Becker Professional Development Corp.
• Cabela's Inc.
• Charming Shoppes Inc.
• HSN Inc.
• Nike Inc.
• The Men's Warehouse Inc.
• Tivo Inc.
• Foster and Smith Inc.
• Recreational Equipment Inc.
• Walgreen Co., Rosetta Stone Inc.
• Dell Inc.
• AVG Technologies USA Inc.
• GFI Software Inc.
• Kaspersky Lab Inc.
• Raxco Software Inc.
• Symantec Corp.
• Webroot Software Inc.
• GMCI Internet Operations Inc.
• Playboy Enterprises Inc.
• RK Netmedia Inc.
• Score Internet Group
• Vouyer Media Inc.