Stamps.com 2001 Annual Report Download - page 11

United States District Court for the District of Delaware against both us and E-Stamp Corporation alleging infringement of Pitney Bowes
patents. On April 13, 2000, Pitney Bowes asked the court for permission to amend its complaint to drop allegations of patent infringement with
respect to one patent and to add allegations of patent infringement with respect to three other patents. On July 28, 2000 the court entered Pitney
Bowes' amended complaint. On June 18, 2001, E-Stamp Corporation and Pitney Bowes agreed to settle their litigation.
In September 2000, Pitney Bowes filed another patent infringement lawsuit against us in the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of Texas, alleging that we are infringing four patents owned by Pitney Bowes related to shipping. The suit seeks unspecified damages and a
permanent injunction from further alleged infringement. We answered the complaint on December 1, 2000, denying the allegations of patent
infringement and asserting a number of affirmative defenses. United Parcel Service acquired our iShip multi-carrier shipping service assets on
May 18, 2001. On September 4, 2001, the court granted our motion to transfer the lawsuit to the United States District Court for the District of
Delaware.
On June 14, 2001, we filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pitney Bowes in the United States District Court for the Central District of
California, alleging that Pitney Bowes infringes four patents we own. On January 7, 2002, the court granted Pitney Bowes' motion to transfer
the lawsuit to the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Each of the patent lawsuits between us and Pitney Bowes is in the
discovery phase and is scheduled for trial in January, 2003.
On December 13, 2000, Cybershop (a British Columbia, Canada partnership) and its general partners filed suit against us in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of Texas, alleging that in 1998 a third party fraudulently transferred ownership of the Internet domain name
"stamps.com" away from Cybershop and subsequently transferred it to us. The third party is also a named defendant in the suit. The complaint
seeks legal resolution and recognition of Cybershop's ownership of the "stamps.com" domain name and seeks unspecified monetary damages
against the third party. On January 9, 2001, we filed a motion to dismiss the suit. On February 16, 2001, Cybershop filed an amended
complaint, alleging new causes of action, including conversion, invasion of privacy, trespass, and private nuisance, and seeking declaratory
judgment for return of the domain name registration to Cybershop. Cybershop later filed third and fourth amended complaints. On February 13,
2002, the court granted our summary judgment motion and dismissed all of Cybershop's pending claims against us with prejudice. Cybershop
has filed a motion asking the court to reconsider its decision.
For a discussion of claims by Pitney Bowes and Cybershop and risks associated with intellectual property, please refer to "Risk
Factors--Success by Pitney Bowes in its suits against us alleging patent infringement could prevent us from offering our Internet Postage
services and severely harm our business or cause it to fail," "Risk Factors--Success by Cybershop in its suit against us seeking damages and
recognition of its ownership of the domain name "stamps.com" could prevent us from using the domain name "stamps.com" and could require a
change of name of the Company, severely harming our business or causing it to fail" and "Legal Proceedings."
Employees
As part of our restructuring in October 2000, we reduced our total number of employees by approximately 40% to 315 employees, which
included full time, part time and contract employees. In February 2001, we further reduced our total number of employees by approximately
50% to 150 employees, which included full time, part time and contract employees. In May 2001, approximately 55 employees left Stamps.com
to join UPS as part of the acquisition of the iShip business by UPS. And in August 2001 we further reduced our headcount by approximately
25% to less than 70 employees and full time equivalents. As of March 21, 2002, we have approximately 65 employees. None of our employees
are represented by a labor union.
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2002. EDGAR Online, Inc.