Leadgen Company Lending Tree Files Suit Against Zillow, NexTag, Adchemy and QuinStreet
Lending Tree, a leading online mortgage lead generation company filed patent infringement suits last week against other well known companies in the internet leadgen sphere, including Zillow, NexTag, AdChemy and QuinStreet. Lending Tree has claimed that patent numbers 6,385,594 and 6,611,816, both entitled “Method and Computer Network for Coordinating a Loan over the Internet”, are infringed by the companies mentioned above.
It is well known that Lending Tree started its mortgage lead generation operation long time back and provided opportunities for the consumers to chose from multiple mortgage companies. The banks and mortgage brokers competed and provided quotes to match the loan requirements. While it was a pioneering initiative those days, it is pretty straight forward like a basic math operation nowadays.
No doubt, long legal battles will be fought in the court to decide the merits of the case. I am not a lawyer and have no knowledge about how the patent system works through the courts. In my personal opinion, Lending Tree has been weakened, not by these competitors, but but by the maturity of the internet and applications; the natural withering process has started. I don’t see this action any thing different than that of the reactions of the traditional telecom service providers for the introduction of VOIP. Probably the company is trying to reduce the competition and make some money in the process. Recollect how these smartphone manufacturers are fighting each other over minor patents; and finally settle without much noise. Let us wait and see what happens!
