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Comment RSSEWA Sued by Essociate
Written by Pace LattinJune 4, 2012 # 8:00 pm # Industry News, Specials # 43 Comments
Performance Marketing Insider has learned that EWA Network, owned by the infamous Ryan Eagle, is the latest defendant in a growing long list of companies sued by Essociates. The lawsuit claims, as does the other ones, that EWA Network has been infringing on Essociate’s “Affiliate Marketing” patent.
Essociate has been suing companies since 2009, asserting that they own the patent to any type of affiliate marketing that takes offers from any other source and runs them on another source. Since almost all affiliate marketing platforms run offers from other sources or their clients have their own platform, almost every company in the industry is in theory infringing on the patent.
The purpose of the lawsuits have been described by some as being nothing less than extortion: the cost to settle is often a bit less than the cost of the lawsuit, allowing Essociate to build a war chest to sue other companies. Notably they have not sued any technology companies, including the platforms that these companies run on, since most likely those companies would vigorously defend any claims.
The belief is that Essociate, whose entire business model seems to be these lawsuits, will eventually take on large companies in the industry, including Amazon and EBay, once they have enough money to sustain a fight with those companies.
Essociate’s lawsuits have been blamed for contributing to the death of several major networks including Epic and Copeac. Both companies had been named in Essociate lawsuits.
Written by Pace Lattin
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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Eagles soar above vultures.
In theory Ryan, but you’re battling a hunter with a gun and you have no Federal protection – not just a vulture looking for an already dead animal.
Good luck, though. I don’t agree at all with this suit, or suits like it – but it’s business. Overture’s search patents have done the same thing for PPC industry in the past (to a MUCH larger degree) and they’ve been successfully settled for hundreds of millions, FB just got hit with it as well…these cases don’t really get thrown out if they’re legit.
No, this is not business, it’s blatant abuse and manipulation of a system designed to protect those who innovate long enough to bring their innovation to market, recoup the cost of R&D and see a fair chance at making a profit.
The patent system isn’t for leeches to create overly broad claims to owning a technology or process for the sole purpose of suing others for profit; especially a technology or process that they had no part in creating as in this case.
The practice of networks running offers from other networks has been around for well over a decade if not two. It’s a common practice that long predates this patent. It’s prior art, plain and simple.
The USPTO is lazy and clueless on most things. They hand out patents left and right that should never be allowed and force resolutions to be made in courts at exorbitant costs and loss of productivity and progress. This patent should have never been granted.
These idiots will not succeed in taking on any large companies with their fraudulent claims. If they’re smart, the larger companies who would be at risk of a suit would pool their resources and file a suit to have this patent revoked.
Gotta give credit where it is due, that was a slick response… haha
Good advice on how to beat them:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/drew_curtis_how_i_beat_a_patent_troll.html
Don’t negotiate with terrorists; patent trolls have done more damage to the United States economy than any domestic or foreign terrorist organization in history, every year.” (Drew Curtis)
anyone knows which is great network with content locker ?
It’s disgusting what these companies do. Who has the audacity to claim that they invented affiliate marketing? Shame on them.
Nice one Eagle, lol – you’re a funny guy.
sounds like eagle is going to pay a lot of money, hope EWA is financially stable to withstand it, i highly doubt that but only time will tell.
lots of posts about EWA not paying their bills on time. Saying its a staffing issue and they hired 14 accounting people to solve it….lol
It’s not a staffing issue, EWA seems to be in deep financial trouble as they haven’t paid a lot of affiliates. More and more stories surface were EWA bans affiliates for allegedly sending fraudulent traffic and/or saying they weren’t paid by their advertisers and then don’t pay their affiliates.
I bet we will hear a lot more of these stories in the near future and I wouldn’t wonder if EWA is the next network we read about going bankrupt.
This is happening to me. First they placed my account under review because they said the traffic was fraudulent according to the advertiser (which was not) then they decided I was clean and legitimate and decided to reinstate my account. It took almost 1 month for this whole process. Then they said my payment was going to be made weeks ago. Guess what, nothing yet and all I get is the runaround….
its like Essociates has a patent on anything that is sold, resold, uses resellers, uses authorized dealers, and franchises…
why don’t they just patent “Business” and anyone who does Business is libel for any of their losses…
He,he,he..”what goes around comes around”
It’s great to see these arrogant CPA network get shafted into Chapter 11. Get a taste of your own medicine guys. I love it.
Eagle’s a kid – time to learn a lesson and the arrogance will stop…
I highly doubt Jim or Sheriff are millionaires, you don’t have crap on Ryan. Run along now.
Next time you have a thought, keep it. Run along now.
Jima and Sheriff, a couple guys that didn’t get accepted into EWA.
Some people really needed my referrals.
Gabriel Zota. recently posted..TheDailyBeast: 210K Daily Visits.
Let’s raise some money for Essociate already. The cry for help has been heard.
Gabriel Zota. recently posted..TheDailyBeast: 210K Daily Visits.
Man, can not tell anyone you stacking chips these days! Mofo’s try and hunt you down and take your happy meal. I think suits like this are complete bullshit. Why don’t these companies spend their free time and efforts on making more money instead of trying to invent new ways to throw people under the bus? I do not understand it one bit. I could understand suits like this if you opened up a McDougal’s or a Burger Queen, but this is ridiculous. And for the record I am so poor I can not pay attention! Just wanted to put that out there. Oh yeah I support “Birdman” bc I know he just trying to make a living
You may get some PR out of this so may not be that bad after all 
Good Luck and I wish you well.
Sad reflection on this industry, you either fuck others or are the one being fucked( but those are fucking others too )
I’m so glad I’m no longer in this pathetic industry anymore!
I don’t care how old you are or how arrogant you are if you work hard to build something you shouldn’t have it taken from you by some troll. That’s like Patenting money making kind of what the democrats do already “Oh you make money now give us some!” I have seen a lot of companies face these stupid lawsuits including a company I used to work for. It’s stupid that a person can work so hard and then have to face stupid sh*t like this. Unacceptable!
Wow, that’s very observant of you. “Democrats” have everything to do with this. Please keep telling us whatever Fox News tells you to think.
I’m not bashing anyone here, but it’s a shame what is happening to all of the companies out there and the entire business model of IM. It’s getting tighter and tighter as time goes by.
Eagle – I don’t know you, but I feel for you, along with all of the other network owners that are going through hell within the past year.
Stephen Stepanik recently posted..The new-age wave of traffic, SMS.
Eagle told a bunch of people that he is consideration bankruptcy after this lawsuit.. not good news?
Ummmm… to those who think filing chapter 11 is being “shafted”, do you not realize that it’s specifically designed to allow companies to not have to pay back the debts they owe (or rather, pay back a VERY small portion of them, like 1% to 5%) and then to go back and start another business with essentially no harm to them at all?
Chap 11 BK is intended to give innovators & entrepreneurs a chance at a fresh start as they tend to do a lot to stimulate & drive the economy. Any of the executives at networks that filed Chap 11 still got paid well all those years, still got their bonuses, cars, or whatever else. They don’t have to give any of it back.
I went through a Chap 11 BK myself in 2002 and though the laws have changed, the fundamental concept hasn’t. Nobody at the networks is getting screwed by it, except their affiliates, employees (the “lowly” ones), & creditors.
Jonathan
Jonathan van Clute recently posted..Who Still Makes “big Money” Affiliate Marketing Today?
How much are they planning to sue for anyway?
If you work hard to build something you shouldn’t have it taken from you by some troll. That’s like Patenting money making kind of what the democrats do already “Oh you make money now give us some!” I have seen a lot of companies face these stupid lawsuits including a company I used to work for.
What a “business strategy”… and it does appear to be scalable too. LOL!!! WEIRD! Suing since 2009… wow!
Antonio recently posted..PPV MARKETING | The Real ‘DIRTY DIRTY’ About PPV Traffic…
Wow.. can’t believe EWA would catch a lawsuit.. Hope they bounce back!
This “lawsuit” is a joke, and it’s sad things like this still happen in this day and age. The patent system is flawed.
Yea – seriously. I can’t believe they are doing this to the industry.
I know that EWA will bounce back on this one easily – good luck to them.
Shitting on peasants; just like EWA always do.
That’s enough Essociate! Frivolous lawsuit that won’t come to fruition. This is what is wrong with Merica!
Come on, I patented O2 now everyone pay me for oxygen along with the water you drink…How can you patent “Affiliate Marketing” ? What a stupid and frivolous pursuit.
Come at me Bro!
EWA Will win. We will Win! We will conquer all! This is what happens when people can’t make a buck online–they go sue everyone else that is. Clearly just another attempt at bill collecting.
patent trolls destroy startups and innovation all over this country. It truly is disgusting how broken patent law is. We are in desperate need of a massive overhaul in the legislation here as it is in effect destroying what it was created to protect
Essociate produces nothing. These types of parasites are a drain on real companies that are trying to push industry forward.
New round of suits just hit some big names check the court docs
Who is the next EWA Azoogle COPEAC etc…?
Are you going to cover the latest EWA drama? The fake AM, the unpaid people Affs, the mystery investors?