1-800 Contacts’ reported patent mischief vs. 15-person start-up Ditto has stayed largely out of the headlines, but tech bloggers have rightly identified the case as a cause célèbre.
The short version is that innovative start-up Ditto (@shopDITTO) created some excellent technology that takes a user-generated video of a face and allows that user to virtually try on glasses and see them from multiple angles. (See how cool?)
Now, the story goes: 1-800 Contacts and subsidiary Glasses.com, where I’ve personally bought contact lenses for years I used to buy contacts twice annually, in an effort to consolidate their very large corner of the eyewear market, purchased a patent from a defunct company which covered selling glasses online using a 3-D model.
Upon purchasing the patent, 1-800 Contacts also filed a lawsuit against Ditto in a Utah federal court (quite far from Ditto’s California headquarters), leaving Ditto in a position to spend what little capital they have as a start-up fighting the case.
From Readwrite.com:
“It’s a game-changing event, truly. It’s terrifying,” sighed Ditto CEO Kate Endress. “We’ve had to stop all marketing, every dollar has to go into this litigation.” . . . “If we win this infringement case, we’re still out the millions of dollars we spent winning. That’s why it has become punitive for companies to innovate,” Endress said. “The patent systems is structured in a way where it lets corporations act like patent trolls where they can buy things they didn’t invent . . .”
The real kicker is that 1-800 Contacts appears to be unwilling to consider licensing the patent to Ditto, and an even bigger kicker is that while filing suit against Ditto, 1-800 Contacts announced their intention to launch a similar service to that offered by Ditto.
Here is what 1-800 Contacts communicated to Electronic Frontier Foundation:
1-800-CONTACTS contacted us, through their lawyer, to complain about this post. The company complains that we incorrectly stated that it does not provide a virtual try-on system. Well, it turns out that the company (which owns Glasses.com)intends to launch a virtual try-on iPad app. We weren’t aware of this app. And this is not surprising, since it is not yet available and was publicized on April 17, 2013, the same day as our post. In contrast, Ditto’s competing product was launched back in April last year.
Is it illegal? Technically not. Is it wrong? Definitely feels like bullying to the corporate degree.
What do you think? Please comment below…
