IBM wants $167M from Groupon in ecommerce patent suit

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM wants $167 million from “new kid on the block” Groupon in a lawsuit over ecommerce patents.

The trial opened in a federal court in Delaware on Monday with Bloomberg News reporting that John Desmarais, a lawyer representing IBM, declared:

“The new kid on the block refuses to take responsibility for the technology it’s using. IBM spends literally billions of dollars every year on research and development to make our lives easier.”

Groupon lawyer J. David Hadden disputed IBM’s claims.

“A key question for you in this case is whether these patents cover the world wide web,” Hadden told jurors, Bloomberg said in its report. “They do not and that is because IBM did not invent the world wide web.”

Desmarais said other firms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook had paid licensing rights to IBM for IBM technology, according to Reuters.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

IBM operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP and employs several thousand people across North Carolina.