Lawsuit, Inquiry Hamper VistaPrint

PENNSAUKEN, NJ—ColorQuick LLC has filed suit against both Hamilton, Bermuda-based VistaPrint and OfficeMax Inc. of Naperville, IL, claiming the companies have infringed upon a ColorQuick patent. According to Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology, the suit was filed in U.S. District Court for East Texas.

The 2005 patent in question is ColorQuick's process for preparing production data for print jobs, Mass High Tech reported. The suit contends that VistaPrint's online digital print services and OfficeMax's ImPress digital print services copy the ColorQuick process, which uses a still image proxy of a page description language (PDL) file, the publication said.

VistaPrint may have even bigger problems, however. Mass High Tech also cited a Citron Research report that notes VistaPrint could lose 44 percent of its net income, the amount it derives from referral partnerships with third-party Websites. The U.S. Senate has launched an inquiry into online referral programs, according to the report.