| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Countless Web Sites Threatened by Patent Holder That Claims He "Invented" Online Coupons |
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CouponPages.Com Staten Island, NY, February 13, 2001 - Web sites like CouponPages.Com that feature printable coupons were recently issued a firm warning to stop putting coupons on their web pages, unless they agree to pay a license fee to a 1993 patent holder. Enforcing the patent will not be easy. There are potentially millions of web pages online that contain some form of coupon. For the past couple of years, more and more lawsuits have been filed by people who are trying to claim they "Invented" the idea of putting coupons online. They are looking to get license fees every time somebody puts a coupon on their web-site. Some of these companies have very generic patents that were issued long before the Internet... and they don't even mention the Internet or any online service for that matter. Henry Von Kohorn for example owns patent # 5,249,044 "Product information storage, display, and coupon dispensing system". It's a 1993 patent for a system that uses a transmitter, an antenna, a VCR and a "printing apparatus" to print coupons broadcast over the air to your television. Even though his patents never mention the Internet or online services by name, he asserts that the courts will back him up that a "television" and a computer monitor are the same thing. Von Kohorn asserts that since the concept is an electronic method for selecting and printing coupons, then he is the rightful "Inventor" of the Internet-Coupon, and it's time for people to start paying him for using his "invention". Recently Mr. Von Kohorn sent out the first round of certified letters to many coupon sites asking that they look over his patents and consider licensing his "Invention". He's not the only one trying to claim that title. There have been dozens of lawsuits from people who are trying to claim their specific method of coupon retrieval covers some form of Internet-coupon. Von Kohorn's the first one who is bold enough to claim the entire concept belongs to him. Joe Crescenzi, president of CouponPages.Com is stunned at the very idea that somebody would claim to own a patent like this and try to enforce it. "Coupons have been around for over 100 years, and have been printed on everything from newspapers to business cards, pens, key chains and Frisbees… The Internet is just electronic paper… any web page can be printed, our pages happen to have coupons on them. All we do at CouponPages.Com is put the same kinds of coupons online that people print on paper, so how could somebody claim they "invented" it." Von Kohorn, who says the industry has labeled him the "Bully of the coupon market", also owns patents in the "Sweepstakes field, qualifying and final prize (sweepstakes) events [patent # 5,508,731] (which also never mentions the Internet by name, and also uses a television). Another feather in his cap is a Trademark of the phrase "Online Casino". So if you have a sweepstakes online, or use the phrase "Online Casino"... he's going after you! To date, nobody has ever fought him all the way to court. Paying his license fee is quick and cheap enough to get it out of the way. So far six companies have paid the fee. But that still leaves a few hundred thousand others... but Von Kohorn intends to knock as many of them out as he can. "CouponPages.Com intends to fight this patent, not just for us, but for the countless other sites online who have coupons and other printed materials online." asserts Crescenzi. " People should be free to scan or type a coupon and place it on their web pages…. It's a slippery slope. There are countless other printable items that could be effected. Anything that can be put on paper could be put online. Everybody should be free to publish printable items online without fear that somebody will claim they own a patent for "inventing" the idea… What's next? Coloring books? Comic books? Magazines? Newspapers? Art? Can somebody claim they own the right to put them online?" "The real question at hand is: Can you patent something as basic as a coupon or a sweepstakes? If you can hold a sweepstakes or send a coupon in the mail without anybody claiming ownership of that "invention", why is placing them online something different?". CouponPages.Com intends to fight this battle without the aid of an attorney simply because they cannot afford one. Because of the lack of resources, Crescenzi, the president of the company says, "I intend to tap into my local representatives, newspapers, magazines, the ACLU… anybody who understands the magnitude of this situation and wants to help! … The Internet is about freedom and information. This is not just an attack against our web site; it's an attack against the basic principle that the Internet is a place to publish printable and non-printable information. Nobody should try to limit the types of information we are allowed to place online… ever." "As long as the Internet-Coupon market continues to grow the way it is... this patent war is far from over. If you ask me, we should all be paying Al Gore these license fees... after all, he said he "invented" the Internet itself!" CouponPages.com has dozens of high profile coupon oriented Internet addresses including CouponsOnline.com, InternetCoupons.com and PrintableCoupons.com. The sites feature pages for local merchants that contain coupons. Consumers print the pages and bring the coupons to the merchants. It is a small company owned and operated out of the Staten Island home of it's owner and only employee, Joe Crescenzi. For more information about CouponPages.Com, visit the web site at www.couponpages.com or to reach Joe Crescenzi call 718-494-6507 ### |