Court Rules in Favor of Finance Express in Last of the Patent Disputes Against DealerTrack

Court Rules in Favor of Finance Express in Last of the Patent Disputes Against
DealerTrack

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Finance Express LLC
announced today that the United States District Court for the Central District
of California granted summary judgment in favor of Finance Express in a patent
lawsuit brought by DealerTrack, Inc. over computer-aided systems that
facilitate financing transactions between car dealers and lenders over a
communications network.

The Court's July 7th rulings confirm that Finance Express does not infringe
any of DealerTrack's asserted patents, and that another of DealerTrack's
patents is invalid. In an earlier ruling, the Court held a third DealerTrack
patent invalid.

"With the current rulings, all of DealerTrack's patent claims against Finance
Express have been rejected, and the Court will enter final judgment in favor
of Finance Express," said Lawrence Hadley, a partner at Hennigan Bennett &
Dorman LLP, the Los Angeles law firm which represented Finance Express.
"Finance Express proved that its fully-integrated, Web-based Dealer Management
System software did not meet any of the asserted patent infringement claims."

David Huber, President of Finance Express states, "We're extremely happy with
the court's rulings. We were confident that this would be the eventual
outcome. I have always stated this was never about infringing on
DealerTrack's patent, which they knew we had not, but this has always been
about DealerTrack's attempt to litigate a competitor out of business. As
happy as we are here at Finance Express to have this behind us, it would seem
that some are not quite as happy". Huber went on to say, he has been contacted
by a DealerTrack shareholder since the ruling, questioning the millions of
dollars DealerTrack has spent on acquiring Credit Connection and the original
patents, applying for new patents, and the millions spent on litigating this
case over the last several years. Shareholder questions, the untold millions
spent, and with DealerTrack ending up with nothing but invalid patents, there
seems to be discussion of a potential class action suit against DealerTrack.

According to David Huber, partners Roderick Dorman and Lawrence Hadley were
recently hired to try the case but identified dispositive issues not asserted
by prior counsel.

"On the eve of trial, we were pleased that the firm persuaded District Judge
Guilford to consider those issues by summary judgment motions of
non-infringement and invalidity, both of which were granted," Huber said.
"This judicial outcome proves what Finance Express had said all along -
Finance Express respects intellectual property rights and never infringed any
valid DealerTrack patent."

Finance Express proved that the latest patent ruled invalid was not eligible
for patenting under the 2008 Federal Circuit Court of Appeal decision in In re
Bilski. More specifically, Finance Express established that DealerTrack's
patent did not "specify precisely how the computer hardware and database are
'specially programmed,' and the claimed central processor is nothing more than
a general purpose computer that has been programmed in some unspecified
manner."

DealerTrack began its patent infringement allegations against Finance Express
in early 2006, shortly after the parties terminated discussions relating to a
possible business arrangement. Besides asserting that Finance Express
infringed its three patents, DealerTrack sued Huber as an individual. The
Court had earlier dismissed those patent infringement claims against Huber for
lack of evidence.

"Although the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the Bilski
decision on which the Court granted judgment in the latest invalid ruling,
we're confident that the judgment in its favor will be upheld should
DealerTrack elect to appeal," Hadley said.

About Finance Express
Finance Express is the leading provider of online services and web-based
technology for the independent dealer market including comprehensive DMS
functionality such as; inventory management, loan servicing, accounting
integration, internet marketing and website hosting, credit application
processing, credit data reporting and lender integration. The comprehensive
platform provides dealers online access to a single, seamless solution and
insures a safe and secure environment for participating lenders. For more
information see its web site www.financeexpress.com.

SOURCE Finance Express LLC

Tara Huber, Corporate Communications of Finance Express, +1-309-531-4946,
thuber@financeexpress.com