Earthport prepares to sue Egg

"We've issued proceedings but not served them. We intend to do that sometime in the next few weeks," Rob Cunningham, CEO of Earthport said.

The company's legal case centres around two contracts signed with the online bank in June and November 2000.

Under the terms of the June agreement, Egg used Earthport's electronic wallet to provide its customers with an online payment method for buying products over the internet. Earthport claims Egg then launched its own equivalent based on Earthport's patents.

"Egg used the intellectual property in our product for its own SendCash product which it launched in May 2002," said Cunningham.

The payment infrastructure group revealed it was gearing up for a legal battle with Egg when it announced a dismal set of results for the year to June 30 2003 yesterday. The beleaguered firm made a £12m loss on revenue of £512,881.

In a statement incorporated within these results, Earthport said that it had "prepared a claim against Egg for a substantial sum under the November 2001 contract and for related work and intends to pursue this vigorously in the first quarter of 2004."

A spokesperson for Egg would not elaborate on the legal action except to issue the following prepared statement: "Egg treats all matters of this nature seriously and strongly refutes these allegations. Following internal investigations, Egg has formerly rejected these claims through its legal advisers."

9 December 2002:

"www.earthport.com ":http://www.earthport.com

"www.egg.com ":http://www.egg.com

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