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Written by pacelattinSeptember 13, 2011 # 4:37 pm # Industry News, Specials # 12 Comments
In the category of “WTF” news, comes the claim from a company that they own the patent to email marketing. Yes, you heard me right. The company Email Link Corp, claims that they have patented the process of which emails are sent out, and then someone can click on a link to go to a promotional webpage. Basically, they are claiming that any promotional email sent out that links to a webpage, would be in violation of their patent – which would basically be the entire email marketing industry and almost every single newsletter sent.
On Wednesday, they filed a suit in US District Court against several Las Vegas casinos for sending out email to customers that contained links claiming that these “email communications to past, present, and potential future customers that contain links to data comprising website pages.” Email Link Corp basically claims that this violates the patent for their “Information Distribution and Processing System” patent.
Email Link Corp purchased this patent, which makes absolutely no mention whatsoever of email marketing, or links within emails from Hark Chan of Cupertino, California. It seems that the company, Email Link Corp seems to have no business connections to email marketing, or any clients or business on the internet, an only purpose may be to pursue claims against marketing companies.
The patent is basically a conglomeration of various other patents, some which predate the internet, and include references to satellites and other communication devices. It seems that most likely by combining these previous patents, the references to linking data, the hope is that the patent “troll” company can create a possible patent that has something to do with linking data from email to the internet. Unfortunately, when it comes to patent lawsuits, common sense has nothing to do with it, as similar to the Patent for Affiliate Marketing from Essociates. Most companies, when faced with these lawsuits, like perhaps the casinos find it cheaper to settle than to fight ridiculous claims.
Written by pacelattin
Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.
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Performance Mktg Company Claims Email Marketing Patent http://t.co/DFTYNFv via @PaceLattin
[...] to post this today because of this claim ….Company Claims Email Marketing Patent Really? so i’ll post some email marketing tip that everyone can [...]
That’s a WTF 4real, good luck I can’t see them succeeding with this lawsuit.
Darryl H recently posted..Email Marketing Tips
Unfortunately Darryl, they may be asking for $100k worth of money to settle but will cost each casino $500k to defend. I find this type of lawsuit basically extortion, in my opinion, but its common in the patent world.
pacelattin recently posted..Jesse Willms Assets Frozen
[...] Pace Latin reports in Performance Marketing Insider that: [...]
They must be kidding – what a joke and moneyscam
Company Claims Email Marketing Patent – Performance Marketing Insider http://t.co/xVC9Airy LOL – Like when Al gore invented the internet?
Company Claims Email Marketing Patent – Performance Marketing Insider http://t.co/bnXyizOH via @pacelattin
Company Claims Email Marketing Patent – Performance Marketing Insider http://t.co/cuk2uNTs via @pacelattin
Yeah, right. WTF indeed. This is purely legal extortion. It will be far cheaper to pay these guys a few thousand bucks to go away than spend much high-priced legal time to fight it. Too bad, but that’s the way the system works.
[...] This is really interesting, someone claims to have a patent on email…Read more here: http://performinsider.com/2011/09/company-claims-email-marketing-patent/ [...]
Hi There Performinsider,
Along the same lines,, Email marketing is seldom used as a weapon in the arsenal of any company (large or small).
Great Job!