IT giant IBM (IBM) and coupon site Groupon (GRPN) have been at war over patents since 2016. IBM had accused Groupon of infringing four technology patents that date back to early Internet innovations. The two companies are engaged in a 10-day federal trial in Delaware from July 16 onwards. On the first day of the trial, IBM demanded $167 million in settlement from the daily-deals website.
For 25 consecutive years, IBM was said to have the most extensive US patents. IBM claims that major tech companies like Facebook (FB) and Amazon (AMZN) have acquired the license to use IBM technology and pay between $20-50 million.
IBM initially approached Groupon regarding the patent violation in 2011 and since then has been trying to negotiate a license agreement with the Chicago-based company. But when Groupon refused, IBM was forced to hit the company with a patent suit. Early this year, IBM also sued Expedia (EXPE) for infringing on its patents.
IBM looks to cryptocurrency
Stable coins are one of the latest trends in cryptocurrency. These are fixed on assets like gold, or other major currencies. Separately, the tech giant said it is teaming up with financial services provider Stronghold to test a new digital stable coin, with an aim to bring some security in the volatile crypto space. According to Fortune, the tech giant is currently testing the stable coin, or crypto dollar, on Stellar — the company’s Blockchain platform.
The growing interest in cryptocurrencies has been attracting a lot of attention. Recently asset manager BlackRock (BLK) hit the headlines after the company said it was evaluating different options of how it can take advantage of this emerging cryptocurrency market.