Excentus Corporation announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Safeway, Inc. and Safeway subsidiaries, including Blackhawk Network, Inc., Blackhawk Marketing, LLC., and Randalls/Tom Thumb in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Abilene, alleging willful and deliberate patent infringement and the misappropriation and theft of trade secrets, among other things. The lawsuit seeks injunctive and equitable relief along with unspecified damages.
During 2006 and 2007, Safeway, through its Blackhawk subsidiaries, attempted to acquire Excentus as well as the patents owned by Auto-Gas Systems, Inc. (which are now owned by Excentus). The suit alleges that after Blackhawk failed to complete a transaction with either party, Safeway wrongfully used the patents, trade secrets and confidential information belonging to Excentus to develop its fuel rewards program called PowerPump Rewards. Excentus' complaint also asserts that Safeway's PowerPump Rewards program is a willful and deliberate infringement of four patents owned by Excentus.
"We believe our patent-protected fuelperks! rewards program is the most powerful customer loyalty program ever offered in the United States," said Dickson Perry, President and CEO of Excentus. "We have made significant investments over the last ten years to develop our world-class technology, services and expertise and acquire the related trademarks and patents, all of which are valuable components of the fuelperks! program and assets of our Company. When faced with situations like this one with Safeway, we are prepared to take the necessary steps to assure our assets and interests are protected."
Randy Nicholson, Excentus board member and a named inventor on the patents, added, "I am extremely excited about the opportunities our fuelperks! program holds for Excentus. I strongly believe that these actions are appropriate to recognize and protect our rights and interests created through the significant amount of time, hard work and monies invested in them over the last 10 to 15 years."
Excentus Corporation is the provider of the fuelperks! rewards program and the leader in developing the first successful, nationwide retail marketing coalition in United States utilizing fuel as the ultimate consumer reward. Excentus holds seven (7) United States patents and one (1) Israeli patent, and it has eight (8) pending patent applications, all regarding the issuance and redemption of various types and forms of fuel discounts as rewards for different consumer behaviors, along with the networking of retailers or other organizations and the clearing, reporting and settlement of the funding of fuel discounts amongst various parties. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Excentus Corp. was founded in 1996. It is a privately held company with over 110 customers in the United States and Canada.
