IBM sues Priceline for patent infringement in U.S. court

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - IBM filed a lawsuit against Priceline Group Inc on Monday, accusing it of infringing four IBM patents in running its travel and dining websites. International Business Machines Corp asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware to bar Priceline from using the patents, to award IBM royalties and to order Priceline to pay IBM's costs and attorney's fees. IBM also said that the infringement was willful, and asked for all damages to be trebled. IBM said it had approached Priceline about the alleged infringement. "Despite IBM’s repeated demands, Priceline refuses to negotiate a license. This lawsuit seeks to stop Priceline from continuing to use IBM’s intellectual property without authorization," IBM said in its complaint. Two of the IBM patents are from the late 1990s, one which tracks prior conversations with a user and another which speeds Internet transmissions. The third patent is from 2006 and is a method of showing Internet advertising; a fourth from 2009 improves on a single sign-on. Priceline also used the patented technology on its websites kayak.com and opentable.com, IBM alleged. Priceline was not immediately available for comment. The case is at the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. It is International Business Machines Corp v. The Priceline Group Inc, and is No. 15-00137. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)