Patents
One of the company's early hires was an in-house patent attorney. So far, Vistaprint has secured 28 issued patents in the U.S. and has additional pending patent applications in the United States and other countries.
The company has described its objective as a "minefield of patents" and has been active in pursuing companies that it considers to be infringing on those patents. In 2006, Vistaprint filed a patent infringement suit against Print24 GmbH and UnitedPrint.com AG. A German court ruled in favor of Vistaprint in July 2007. However, after appealing, the German Federal Patent Court ruled in favor of Unitedprint.com, rescinding Vistaprint’s controversial software patent in March 2009.
Separately, in May 2007, Vistaprint filed a patent infringement suit against two Taylor Corporation subsidiaries 123Print and DrawingBoard.
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