Vistaprint 2010 Annual Report Download - page 92

patents-in-suit. In August 2007, another Taylor Corporation subsidiary, Taylor Strategic Accounts, Inc.,
was added as an additional defendant in the case. The exchange of relevant documents and records
and the depositions of fact witnesses in connection with the allegations of the parties have been
substantially completed. In early June 2008, newly discovered third party prior art documents were
introduced into the litigation. These documents had not been reviewed and considered by the
U.S. Patent Office prior to issuance of the patents-in-suit. For that reason, on June 30, 2008,
Vistaprint Technologies Limited requested the United States District Court to stay the litigation to
provide the U.S. Patent Office an opportunity to reexamine the patents-in-suit in light of these newly
discovered documents, and the Court granted Vistaprint Technologies Limited’s request for a stay on
September 2, 2008. Vistaprint Technologies Limited then submitted a request for reexamination of
each of the patents-in-suit to the U.S. Patent Office, which granted the reexamination requests in
February 2009. Pursuant to the Court’s order, the stay will remain in place pending the resolution of
the requests for reexamination. On October 28, 2008, a St. Paul, Minnesota law firm representing
Taylor Corporation also filed requests with the U.S. Patent Office seeking reexamination of the three
patents-in-suit. These reexamination requests were granted in May and June 2009 and were merged
in September 2009 with the reexaminations earlier filed by Vistaprint Technologies Limited. The
Company is unable to express an opinion as to the likely outcome of any such reexamination or of the
underlying lawsuit.
On July 29, 2008, a purported class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Texas (the “Texas Complaint”) against Vistaprint Corp., Vistaprint USA,
Inc., Vertrue, Inc. and Adaptive Marketing, LLC (collectively, the “Defendants”). Adaptive Marketing,
LLC is a Vertrue, Inc. company that provides subscription-based membership discount programs,
including programs that are offered on our Vistaprint.com website (Vertrue, Inc. and Adaptive
Marketing, LLC are sometimes collectively referred to herein as the “Vertrue Defendants”). The Texas
Complaint alleges that the Defendants violated, among other statutes, the Electronic Funds Transfer
Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer
Protection Act and the Texas Theft Liability Act, in connection with certain membership discount
programs offered to our customers on our Vistaprint.com website. The Texas Complaint also seeks
recovery for unjust enrichment, conversion, and similar common law claims. Subsequent to the filing
of the Texas complaint, in July, August and September 2008, several nearly identical purported class
action lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, the United States
District Court, Southern District of Alabama, the United States District Court, District of Nevada, the
United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, and the United States District Court, District of
Florida against the same Defendants, and in one case Vistaprint Limited, on behalf of different
plaintiffs. The complaints in each of these nearly identical lawsuits include substantially the same
purported Federal and common law claims as the Texas Complaint but contain different state law
claims. In addition, on August 28, 2008, a purported class action lawsuit asserting substantially the
same Federal and common law claims as the Texas Complaint, but containing a state law claim under
the Massachusetts Unfair Trade Practices Act, was filed by a different plaintiff in the United States
District Court, District of Massachusetts, against Vistaprint Limited, Vistaprint USA, Inc. and the
Vertrue Defendants.
Among other allegations, the plaintiffs in each action claim that after ordering products on our
Vistaprint.com website they were enrolled in certain membership discount programs operated by the
Vertrue Defendants and that monthly subscription fees for the programs were subsequently charged
directly to the credit or debit cards they used to make purchases on Vistaprint.com, in each case
purportedly without their knowledge or authorization. The plaintiffs also claim that the Defendants
failed to disclose to them that the credit or debit card information they provided to make purchases on
Vistaprint.com would be disclosed to the Vertrue Defendants and would be used to pay for monthly
subscriptions for the membership discount programs. The plaintiffs have requested that the
Defendants be enjoined from engaging in the practices complained of by the plaintiffs. They also are
seeking an unspecified amount of damages, including statutory and punitive damages, as well as pre-
judgment and post-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees and costs for the purported class.
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