April 1, 2021

（Pictures from Internet）

On Monday, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) filed a complaint in the District of Delaware against Rakuten Inc., Rakuten USA Inc., Rakuten Commerce LLC, and Ebates Inc. doing business as Rakuten for patent infringement, alleging that the defendants infringed its patents related to e-commerce. Rakuten is an e-commerce website that “connects consumers wishing to make purchases of products with providers of those products.”

IBM said that it partnered with others to launch Prodigy, one of the first e-commerce services, before Rakuten was founded in 1997. According to the complaint, Rakuten “took those prior innovations made by IBM and others to create and run its new business,” and used more of IBM’s innovations as it developed.  

IBM asserted that for approximately six years, it has tried to negotiate with Rakuten’s alleged unlicensed use of IBM’s patents to no avail. IBM argued that unlike Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook who have cross licenses with IBM, “Rakuten has chosen to willfully infringe IBM’s patents and even expand its infringing activity.” Reportedly, Rakuten has employed a “series of delay tactics,” such as not taking responsibility for its subsidiaries’ infringement or refusing to meet with IBM and ignoring its messages. IBM also stated that Rakuten “refused to explain why it continued to infringe IBM’s patents” and then purportedly “raised objectionable excuses for why it refused to negotiate.”

Specifically, IBM alleged that the way Rakuten structures its application, webpage, and advertising, and selectively stores its advertising in order to provide its cash back feature uses technology protected in the ‘849 patent by IBM.  Rakuten was accused of direct, indirect, and contributory infringement of the patents. IBM seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and an award for damages, costs, and fees.

Please refer to the following website for details：https://lawstreetmedia.com/tech/ibm-sues-rakuten-for-infringement-of-e-commerce-patents/