The user review system on a major pharmacy chain’s site has led to patent litigation. A suit was filed last Friday in the Western District of Texas against defendant CVS Pharmacy, Inc (CVS) by plaintiff Linfo IP, LLC (Linfo). The plaintiff is accusing CVS of engaging in the infringement of a patent they hold which protects a method for assessing electronic commerce.
The patent-in-suit was acquired by the plaintiff on September 20, 2016. In the complaint, Linfo describes the patent as relating to “a novel and improved methods and apparatuses for conducting electronic commerce.” Specifically, the patent protects a system for analyzing and extracting consumer information based on reviews they leave on a website; examples provided in the complaint include the ability to filter user product reviews by a certain rating.
The infringing acts committed by CVS, the plaintiffs argue, arise from their maintaining, operating, and administering of a system that facilitates “discovering and presenting information in text content with different view formats.” By putting the patented inventions into direct service, CVS is directly infringing on the patent held by the plaintiff. Further, Linfo argued that CVS has procured significant monetary and commercial benefit from the misconduct. Linfo claims that CVS is aware of the violated patent yet continues to induce infringement. They also explain in the complaint that the defendant actively engages in encouraging others to participate in infringing acts.
The plaintiff concludes that “CVS has caused and will continue to cause Linfo damage by direct and indirect infringement of (including inducing infringement of) the claims of the ‘428 patent.” They are seeking a trial by jury, favorable judgement on the infringement, a variety of damages, an injunction preventing the defendant from engaging in further infringement, and any other relief deemed proper by the court.
Linfo is represented by Ramey & Schwaller, LLP.
