Amazon.com 2011 Annual Report Download - page 68

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 68 of the 2011 Amazon.com annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 88

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88

In July 2010, Positive Technologies Inc. filed a complaint against us for patent infringement in the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that certain of
our products, including our Kindle e-reader, infringe three patents owned by the plaintiff purporting to cover a
“DC Integrating Display Driver Employing Pixel Status Memories” (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,444,457; 5,627,558 and
5,831,588) and seeks monetary damages, injunctive relief, costs and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations
of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.
In July 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) staff informed us that it was considering whether to
recommend enforcement proceedings against us for advertising and selling certain textile fiber products as
“bamboo” when they are made of rayon manufactured from bamboo, in violation of the Textile Fiber Product
Identification Act, the FTC Act, and the regulations promulgated thereunder. We do not believe we have violated
these laws and regulations and are cooperating voluntarily with the Commission’s inquiry. In September 2011, we
learned that the Commission voted to refer the matter to the Department of Justice for enforcement proceedings.
In September 2010, Olympic Developments AG, LLC filed a complaint against us for patent infringement in
the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint alleges, among other things,
that certain aspects of our technology, including our Kindle e-reader, infringe two patents owned by the plaintiff
purporting to cover a “Transactional Processing System” (U.S. Patent No. 5,475,585) and a “Device for
Controlling Remote Interactive Receiver” (U.S. Patent No. 6,246,400B1) and seeks monetary damages,
injunctive relief, costs and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously
defend ourselves in this matter.
In November 2010, Kelora Systems, LLC filed a complaint against us for patent infringement in the United
States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. The complaint alleges that our website infringes a
patent owned by Kelora Systems purporting to cover a “Method and system for executing a guided parametric
search” (U.S. Patent No. 6,275,821) and seeks monetary damages, costs, attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief. In
August 2011, Kelora filed an amended complaint adding Amazon subsidiaries Audible and Zappos as
defendants. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.
In December 2010, Global Sessions LP filed a complaint against us for patent infringement in the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that certain
Amazon and AWS technologies infringe four patents owned by the plaintiff purporting to cover a “System And
Method For Maintaining A State For A User Session Using A Web System Having A Global Session Server”
(U.S. Patent No. 6,076,108), an “Enterprise Interaction Hub For Managing An Enterprise Web System” (U.S.
Patent Nos. 6,085,220 and 6,360,249), and a “System And Method For Maintaining A State For A User Session
Using A Web System” (U.S. Patent No. 6,480,894), and seeks monetary damages, a future royalty, injunctive
relief, costs and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously defend
ourselves in this matter.
In December 2010, Technology Innovations, LLC filed a complaint against us for patent infringement in the
United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that
Amazon’s sale of e-books and Kindle e-readers infringes a patent owned by the plaintiff purporting to cover a
“Device For Including Enhancing Information With Printed Information And Method For Electronic Searching
Thereof” (U.S. Patent No. 5,517,407) and seeks monetary damages, injunctive relief, costs, interest, and
attorneys’ fees. The complaint was dismissed without prejudice in August 2011, but the plaintiff filed a new
complaint against us in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware containing similar allegations
and alleging infringement of an additional patent purporting to cover an “Apparatus for the Display of Embedded
Information” (U.S. Patent No. 7,429,965). We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to vigorously
defend ourselves in this matter.
In February 2011, SFA Systems, LLC, filed a complaint against us for patent infringement in the United States
District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that by using computer-
60