Business Wire IndiaPrice f(x), the global leader in cloud pricing software, has filed petitions for “Covered Business Method (“CBM”) Review” of four Vendavo patents, and will imminently file a fifth, which together will cover challenges to all of the patent claims that Vendavo has asserted in litigation between the parties. In Price f(x)’s view, each of Vendavo’s patents qualifies for the specialized CBM procedure created by US Congress to “crackdown on low-quality business method patents.”
Price f(x)’s petitions challenge Vendavo’s patents on a variety of grounds, including in all cases that the claims are directed to patent-ineligible abstract ideas (e.g., math for pricing of products), and in many cases that Vendavo simply tried to claim more than it actually invented. The petitions are now pending in the U.S. Patent Office, which should make an initial ruling on Price f(x)’s petitions in approximately six months. Price f(x) is concurrently moving to stay the patent portion of the parties’ litigation on the grounds that it would be wasteful to continue when the Patent Office may simply invalidate all the patents.
In December 2017, Vendavo launched a baseless lawsuit against Price f(x) thus culminating a string of hostile acts, intended to slow down Price f(x)’s dynamic growth and global expansion. Price f(x) has been initially focusing on a more cost-effective strategy of dismissing all the allegations in the early stage of the litigation. Having exhausted the options for an early end, the Company decided to intensify its defense strategy. As part of that, Price f(x) filed a countersuit on November 5th in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, for spying, stealing and misappropriating Price f(x)’s trade secrets. The lawsuit is now pending its first Court hearing in January 2019.
Marcin Cichon, Price f(x) CEO and co-founder, noted, “we have been very disappointed with Vendavo’s baseless and hostile allegations. While we would have preferred to win in the marketplace, where our nimble, flexible, differentiated and value-adding solution has won and will continue to win, we have been forced to fight back in the courtroom. We owe it to our loyal customers, partners, employees, and investors to vigorously defend our innocence.”
About Price f(x)
Established in 2011 in Germany, Price f(x) AG is the provider of a full suite of price management and CPQ SaaS solution based on latest native cloud architecture, offering broad and flexible support to the entire price management closed loop cycle of Price Strategy, Controlling, Setting and Realization. The solution is suitable for B2B and B2C as well as for any industry, any size of business and geographical location. Price f(x)’s vision is to remain the leading SaaS pricing and CPQ platform provider through offering easy to use, fast to implement, flexible to adapt, risk free and inexpensive, comprehensive solutions. Price f(x)’s business model is entirely based on the satisfaction and loyalty of its customers. For more information please visit: www.pricefx.com.
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