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Amazon and IBM Trade Lawsuit Rhetoric

Written by Evan Schuman
December 15th, 2006

In the ongoing saga of IBM’s patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon.com, Amazon struck back on Thursday, countersuing that it’s actually IBM that is violating patents.

The lawsuit is not subtly phrased: “IBM’s broad allegations of infringement amount to a claim that IBM invented the Internet. If IBM’s claims are believed, then not only must Amazon.com pay IBM, but everyone conducting electronic commerce over the World Wide Web (indeed, every Web site and potentially everyone who uses a Web browser to surf the Web) must pay IBM a toll for the right to do so.”

An IBM spokeswoman–Kendra Collins–said that Amazon’s counterclaims “ring hollow” and represent “nothing more than a transparent litigation ploy,” Collins said, because Amazon never brought up concerns over those patents during four years of cross-licensing discussions with IBM, according to a story in News.com.

In other E-Commerce legal action on Thursday, a lawsuit involving Yahoo and Google AdWords was dismissed, which raises the prospect of an out-of-court settlement.

Posted in E-Commerce, IT Strategy/Industry, Payment Systems, Security/Fraud
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