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Robert Dorf and Alexsam

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Alexsam first came onto my radar in July 2007, when it sued Evolution Benefits & Humana in Marshall, Texas on an electronic gift card patent, 6,000,608. Alexsam is represented by McClanahan & Clearman in that case, which has just had its initial status conference, and discovery is just beginning. In September, Alexsam filed a second lawsuit, this time against IDT Corporation. The '608 patent was also asserted, but so was U.S. Patent 6,189,787. Same lawyers. Pleadings completed in December; still waiting on a scheduling conference.

Let's see, July, September, ... November! Yep, in November, Alexsam filed a third lawsuit, against Unitedhealth Group, Exante Bank, and 2 related entities. Again, same lawyers, same 2 patents. This one's also in the pleading stage.

What's two months from November, you ask? Why, it's January. And right on schedule, Alexsam filed a fourth case on January 17 against Shell Oil Co., Pier 1 Imports, and Metromedia Steakhouses Company (Ponderosa and Bonanza), against using the same lawyers to assert the same '608 and '787 patents. All because the defendants sell gift cards that practice the invention of the patents, according to the complaints.

My first post on Alexsam explained that the company was set up in Texas as a shell for the inventor Robert Dorf, and that his wife also appeared to be an officer. An address in Sarasota, Florida was listed. In fact, Robert Dorf also has a non-functioning website, http://www.alexsam.net/.

Alexsam also sued once before: it filed a lawsuit in September 2003 in the Eastern District of Texas against Datastream Card Services, Globetel Communications Corp., Interactive Communications Int'l, Transcend LLC, MBC Direct LLC, ITC Financial Services, American Express, Galileo Processing, One Global Finance, Simon Property Group, FSV Payment Systems, NetSpend Corp., Next Estate Communications, Wildcard Systems, Qwest, and 3 other defendants (18 in total). The patents asserted were the '608 and '787 patents. McClanahan & Clearman of Houston took the lead. There was a claim construction hearing in May 2005, but as far as I know, it settled before any opinion was issued.

I did not notice any reexaminations on the '608 or '787 patents.

Now who is Robert Dorf? According to his LinkedIn profile, he operates this website relating to "GoPay." Note that the website is marked with the two patent numbers. That's all I could really find out about him. He either lives in Raleigh, NC, or Sarasota, FL, or both.

I don't think many people will find these cases that interesting. But I do think that a bunch of cases filed in the last half-year over these gift-card patents has propelled Alexsam towards the top of the lists of inventor-shell corporations that sue a lot. With that activity will come attention, and maybe a reexam, but who really knows? The priority dates for the patents are July 1997. Was the following representative independent claim really new and nonobvious in July 1997?

20. A loyalty card system, comprising:
a. at least one loyalty card having a unique identification number encoded on it, said identification number comprising a bank identification number approved by the American Banking Association for use in a banking network, said identification number corresponding to the loyalty card system;
b. means for receiving loyalty data from an unmodified existing standard retail point-of-sale device when said loyalty card is swiped through the point-of-sale device, said loyalty data comprising the unique identification number of the card and purchase data; and
c. means for crediting an account corresponding to the loyalty card with loyalty points based upon the purchase data.

So that's Robert Dorf and Alexsam: 5 lawsuits, 28 defendants, and counting, on claims that seem kind-of-broad, to me. Who else has electronic gift cards, prepaid phone cards or loyalty cards that might be targeted?

TT

PS - Nice comments in the previous blog post. Thanks for both viewpoints! I do think that if you file a lawsuit, you're a limited public figure. What, it would be wrong for me to comment on something that any person anywhere in the world could find with a few clicks on the Internet? Anyway, thanks for keeping the commentary civil.

Full post as published by Patent Troll Tracker on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).