“A Texan company has filed lawsuits against retailers including Weight Watchers and Chipotle Mexican Grill, claiming that they infringed its search, online ordering and payment patents.
Landmark Technology LLC, a non-practising entity that is essentially a proxy for owner Lawrence Lockwood, has filed lawsuits against nine companies with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In addition to Chipotle and Weight Watchers, these include Panera Bread, the travel companies Allegiant and Choice Hotels, and the stock photography site Shutterstock.
Lockwood, a former infomercial producer, has previously filed similar suits against Dunkin’ Donuts, Abercrombie & Fitch, Harley-Davidson and Rubbermaid, and has been accused by many observers of “patent trolling.” He has been particularly busy this year, with Landmark filing no less than 22 suits in the first four months of the year alone.
Since May, he has been embroiled in a legal battle with eBay, with had asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine three of his patents which apparently attempted to claim ownership to simply “paying with a credit card online”. The USPTO agreed that one of the patents raised serious concerns – and Lockwood took revenge by suing eBay for abuse of process and malicious prosecution. This is the same (failed) argument that Lockwood attempted to use when suing law firm Sheppard Mullin in 2009. The case was dismissed.”
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