The NPD Group, Inc. announced Monday that it filed its response to the patent infringement and breach of contract litigation brought by NetRatings, Inc., an affiliate of VNU NV.
In the Complaint filed in the federal district court in Delaware, NetRatings alleges that NPD infringes upon a patent, which according to the Complaint covers “a system and method for logging and reporting online activity of computer users”, and that NPD breached a license agreement for the patent.
In its Answer filed yesterday, NPD denies infringing upon the patent, asserts that it has a license under the patent and seeks a declaration from the court that it has neither infringed upon the patent nor breached the license agreement. NPD also asserts in the Answer that the court should bar NetRatings from enforcing the patent against NPD and find that the action was brought in bad faith with unclean hands. NPD seeks dismissal of the Complaint with prejudice and an award of costs and attorneys fees for reasons set forth in NPD’s pending motion to disqualify NetRatings attorneys.
Tod Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NPD, stated “NPD will not accept NetRatings unjustified attack on our business. We have a valid license to use the NetRatings patent. As our Answer to the Complaint suggests, we believe that this action was not brought for a proper purpose, but rather to impede the development of legitimate and useful market research products that compete with Nielsen-related services. We intend to defend ourselves and the marketplace vigorously and expect to emerge from this litigation victorious.”
