Businessweek

E-data Corporation (E-data or the Company), a Delaware corporation, was incorporated in 1959, under the name Domestic Credit Corporation in Utah. E-data has as its present core business the managing of the Freeny Patent. This includes the identification of potential infringers, the negotiation of licensing agreements (including with market testers), and the negotiation of settlements with companies that are infringing the Freeny Patent. E-data has been engaged in this activity for about seven years. The Freeny Patent On December 28, 1994, pursuant to the Second Amended and Restated Contract to Purchase Technology between E-data and Avedas, Inc., E-data purchased U.S. Patent No. 4,528,643, widely referred to as the "Freeny Patent" which, at the time, was registered in the United States, Canada and ten European countries. Freeny Patent covers any process that transmits information from a central source to any type of point of sale terminal, and embodies that information in a material object that is then bought by the consumer. The purchase of the Freeny Patent included the rights for Canada and for the European Union countries (EU). The EU Patent Registration is in effect in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Italy. IBM, Adobe, Vocaltec, Kidsoft and Monotype Typography were among the Company's first licensees late in 1995.