IRVING, Texas, & PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Excentus Corp. and Safeway Inc. announced yesterday that they have entered into a settlement and licensing agreement settling all outstanding litigation between them.
"We are pleased to put this litigation behind us," said Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling. "We respect the breadth of the Excentus intellectual property portfolio and look forward to exploring ways to work together on fuel rewards."
"We are glad to have been able to work with Safeway to execute an agreement that works for both of us and opens up the opportunity [image-nocss] to work together on what is best for their customers going forward," said Dickson Perry, CEO of Excentus. "Our plan is to work with others who want to reward their customers with fuel discounts to avoid disruptive and costly litigation for their companies as we protect the assets of Excentus."
Further terms of the agreements and settlement were not disclosed.
When it filed the lawsuit, Excentus said that Safeway wrongfully used trade secrets and confidential information belonging to Excentus to develop PowerPump Rewards.
Safeway's PowerPump Rewards program gave customers discounts on gasoline at certain gas stations after they reached a specific level of spending on groceries or gift cards. Excentus' fuel rewards, called fuelperks!, offers fuel discounts based on spending.
Click hereto read CSP Daily News' past coverage of the legal battle.
Excentus Corp., Irving, Texas, is the provider of the fuelperks! rewards program, a retail marketing coalition that provides the opportunity for grocers and a variety of other retailers to use fuel discounts as the common reward currency for their customers.
Safeway Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,730 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $44.1 billion in 2008.
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