Groupon filed a lawsuit against IBM for infringing the patent technology that helps businesses solicit customers based on the customers’ locations at a given moment. It has been filed with the federal court on its hometown of Chicago.  The IBM’s representative Shelton said that counter suit is totally without merit.

The current lawsuit concerned about IBM’s Web Sphere Commerce platform that is for merchants to send messages to customers with GPS-enabled devices based on their real-time locations, and their use of social media including Face book.

Groupon’s representative said that the platform infringes a December 2010 patent and that it earns royalties. And Shelton who is the representative of IBM said that the IBM has tried to conclude a fair and reasonable license agreement with groupon instead of suing it.

The Author is a Patent Consultant from MR Technollect Solutions (www.MRTechnollect.com).