O'HARA, Pa. -- Giant Eagle Inc. recently announced that charges made against it in a patent dispute over its fuelperks! rollback loyalty program have been dismissed.
Dallas-based Excentus Corp. filed a lawsuit against Giant Eagle Inc., O'Hara, Pa., in February 2013, claiming the grocer infringed on its patents and that it provided software to run Giant Eagle's fuelperks! program.
In a recently released statement, Giant Eagle said the lawsuit filed by Excentus in the U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania against Giant Eagle as well as David and Dan Shapira, owners of the grocery chain, "has been dismissed with prejudice by agreement of the parties."
The news follows a related settlement last fall involving Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip and Excentus, where the parties involved reached a settlement without disclosing details. As a result of that settlement, the legal back and forth between Excentus and a competing loyalty provider, Midax Inc., Virginia Beach, Va., were also resolved without revealing any new details.
In one of those suits, Midax officials questioned the validity of Excentus' patents. Excentus replied in its own lawsuit, underscoring the authority of the U.S. Patent Office which granted Excentus its patents.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a source close to the legal wrangling told CSP Daily News that as parties reach settlements, many of the accusations alleged simply disappear without resolution or judgment from the court system.
When contacted by CSP Daily News, Jim Nevill, president of Midax, declined to comment on the details of the settlement, but he did say that the resolution of the litigation has led to an uptick in customer interest in their solution.
In the Giant Eagle case, Dan Shapira, the company's special counsel said, "We are pleased that the lawsuit and charges brought by Excentus against Giant Eagle, me and my brother David Shapira have been resolved to our satisfaction, releasing both us individually and Giant Eagle from this matter."
David Shapira, executive chairman of the Giant Eagle board of directors added, "With new management at Excentus, and with this litigation behind us, we are eager to direct our full focus toward implementing a successful go-forward strategy with our long-time partner."
Brandon Logsdon, president and CEO of Excentus Corp. said, "We now have the opportunity to capitalize on the strengths of our two organizations to continue building toward our mutual goal--bringing valuable rewards to our customers and members nationwide. We have done business with Giant Eagle for many years, and we are very pleased that our strategic relationship will continue to evolve and expand."
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