It was announced today that ten of the nation’s retail, insurance and manufacturing companies have purchased licenses under the patent portfolio held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. and licensed through A2D, L.P.
These separate licenses cover services offered by each of the companies in the “Automated Health Care Services” and “Product/Service Support” Fields-of-Use. These services, including customer service and more specifically, refilling of prescriptions, are delivered through automated systems as well as the combination of automated systems and live agents. Other terms of the licenses were not disclosed.
The companies include:
Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 37.3 million people and is headquartered in Hartford, CT.
Ahold USA, Inc. (OTC: AHONY) based in Quincy, MA operates a group of quality supermarkets throughout the U.S.
CIGNA Corporation (NYSE: CI) is one of the nation’s leading health service companies in the U.S. with 2007 revenues of more than $17 billion. The company is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) based in Issaquah, WA operates an international chain of membership warehouses with more than 51 million members. Their 391 U.S. outlets employ more than 100,000 people.
CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS) is the largest provider of prescriptions in the U.S., filling or managing more than one billion prescriptions annually. It is based in Woonsocket, RI.
Direct Group North America, Inc. f/k/a BMG Columbia House based in New York City is the largest direct marketer of DVDs in the United States and Canada.
The Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) based in Cincinnati, OH, is one of the nation’s largest grocery retailers with fiscal 2007 sales of $70.2 billion.
Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) headquartered in Camp Hill, PA, is one of the nation’s leading drugstore chains with more than 5,000 stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia with fiscal 2008 annual sales of more than $24.3 billion.
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) through its affiliates serves more than 70 million Americans and was ranked number 21 on the 2007 Forbes 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations. It is headquartered in Minnetonka, MN.
Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) headquartered in Benton Harbor, MI is the world’s leading manufacturer of major home appliances. Whirlpool brands are marketed in over 170 countries worldwide.
Cynthia Michener, Aetna Assistant Vice President of Public Relations, stated “Aetna is focused on making our customer experience the best it can possibly be. Our telephone based customer care system is one way to help us keep that commitment. The technologies in the Katz portfolio of patents facilitate many of these call functions.”
Don Davis, Rite Aid Senior Vice President and CIO, stated “We are pleased to have resolved this matter and to have purchased this important license coverage under a group of patents which describe many of the leading edge implementations of automated telephone prescription refill services and other forms of automated customer service.”
Ronald A. Katz stated, “In North America alone, we estimate that over one billion automated prescription refill requests are being processed over the phone each year, virtually all of which utilize technology claimed in these patents. We welcome this extraordinary group of companies to the large number of companies in the healthcare, retail and insurance industries who have purchased licenses under this portfolio.”
The technologies in the licensed patents were invented by Ronald A. Katz. His pioneering efforts created one of the first, if not the first, inbound computerized call centers in 1961 when he formed Telecredit, Inc., the nation’s first on-line real time credit and check cashing authorization system. He was awarded a patent as co-inventor of that technology.
In the mid 1980s, Mr. Katz started work on interactive call processing patents. Within a few years, he entered into a joint venture with American Express to implement the call processing technologies on an unprecedented scale, drawing up plans for a ten thousand port voice response system to be located in the center of the United States.
By 1989, the company that was Mr. Katz’s brainchild had become “Call Interactive,” a joint venture between American Express Information Services Company and AT&T Corp. This company, in its various forms, has been practicing the technologies found in this group of patents continuously since 1988. Today, the company is known as First Data Voice Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Data Corporation.
The patents held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P., cover a wide range of interactive technology including automated forms of: customer service, securities trading, merchandising, prepaid services, prescription refill service, telephone conferences, registration, home shopping, as well as functions involved in securing information from databases by telephone, interactive cable transactions, and various other uses of toll free and local numbers.
There are over 275 companies with license rights under this portfolio, including over 45 energy and utility companies. Companies with license rights under this portfolio include: Advanta Corp., Alltel Corporation, American Century, American Express, American International Group, Inc., Amtrak, AT&T Inc., Avis Budget Group, Inc., Avon Products, Inc., Bank of America Corporation, Capital One Services Inc., Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Comerica Inc., Continental Airlines, Dell Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc., Discover Financial Services, Edward D. Jones & Co., Experian, Express Scripts, Exxon Mobil Corp., First Data Corporation, FirstMerit Corporation, The Gallup Organization, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Household International, Inc., HSBC Bank USA, ING North America Insurance Corp., International Business Machines (IBM), Kaiser Permanente Insurance Co., KeyCorp, Kohl's Corporation, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, MCI Inc., Mellon Financial Corporation, Merck & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Metris Companies Inc., Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, New York Life Insurance Company, OppenheimerFunds, Inc., Premier Global Services, Inc., Principal Financial Group, Inc., Prudential Financial, Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc., QVC, Inc., Regions Financial Corporation, Safeway Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., ShopKo Stores, Sprint Corporation, Sunoco, Inc., SUPERVALU Inc., TD Banknorth Inc., T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., T-Mobile USA, United Air Lines, Inc., Verizon California Inc., Wachovia Corporation, Walgreen Co., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, Webster Financial Corporation, WellPoint, Inc., Wells Fargo & Company, West Corporation, Wilmington Trust Corporation and Zions Bancorporation.
Contacts:
Brian Rivette, 310-247-8191
brivette@a2dlp.com
