Vistaprint 2008 Annual Report Download - page 43

We believe that the total space available to us in the facilities we own and under our current
leases and co-location arrangements or obtainable by us on commercially reasonable terms, will meet
our needs for the foreseeable future.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
On July 27, 2006, our wholly-owned subsidiary, VistaPrint Technologies Limited, filed a patent
infringement lawsuit against print24 GmbH, unitedprint.com AG and their two managing directors in the
District Court in Düsseldorf Germany, alleging infringement by the defendants in Germany of one of
VistaPrint Technologies Limited’s European patents related to computer-implemented methods and
apparatus for generating pre-press graphic files. On June 7, 2007, print24 GmbH filed a patent
nullification action in the German Patent Court in relation to the same European patent at issue in
VistaPrint’s infringement lawsuit against print24 and its co-defendants. On July 31, 2007, the District
Court in Düsseldorf ruled in VistaPrint’s favor on the underlying infringement claim against print24 and
its co-defendants, granting all elements of the requested injunction and ordering the defendants to pay
damages for past infringement. The Düsseldorf District Court’s ruling went into effect in early
September 2007 and was not appealed by the defendants. Print24’s nullification action against
VistaPrint in German Patent Court remains outstanding and we are unable to express an opinion as to
the likely outcome of such action.
On May 14, 2007, VistaPrint Technologies Limited filed a patent infringement lawsuit against
123Print, Inc. and Drawing Board (US), Inc., subsidiaries of Taylor Corporation, in the United States
District Court for the District of Minnesota. The complaint asserts that the defendants have infringed
and continue to infringe three U.S. patents owned by VistaPrint Technologies Limited related to
browser-based tools for online product design. VistaPrint Technologies Limited has requested that the
court issue an injunction against the defendants and award certain monetary damages. The
defendants filed their Answer and Counterclaims to the complaint on June 7, 2007, in which they
denied the infringement allegations and asserted counterclaims for declaratory judgment of invalidity,
unenforceability and non-infringement of the 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 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 third party prior art
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. The defendants opposed
VistaPrint Technologies Limited’s request for a stay. The Court has not yet ruled on VistaPrint
Technologies Limited’s request for a stay, but the case has been suspended pending the Court’s
decision.
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
VistaPrint customers on our vistaprint.com website. The Texas Complaint also seeks recovery for
unjust enrichment, conversion, and similar common law claims. The U.S. District Court for the
Form 10-K
39