| MATERIAL EXPRESS
CORPORATION
2235 Encinitas Blvd.
Encinitas, CA 92024
www.materialexpress.com
For Further Information, contact:
Barry
Mester at bmester@materialexpress.com
or 800-594-7044
MATERIAL
EXPRESS.COM FILES SUIT AGAINST i2 TECHNOLOGIES, INC FOR VIOLATION
OF BOTH FEDERAL AND CALIFORNIA
STATE ANTITRUST LAWS, UNFAIR COMPETITION AND
UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES
Encinitas, California,
July 12, 2002 - Material Express.com today announced it has filed
an action in Federal Court against i2 Technologies, Inc and Trade
Service Corporation (dba i2 Technologies) alleging that these businesses
have unlawfully attempted to maintain a monopoly in the electrical
industry database business and, in doing so, have engaged in variety
of anti-competitive and unfair business practices. i2 Technologies,
without prior notice to Material Express.com, had earlier filed
a copyright infringement action in Federal Court. While Material
Express contests this surprise action, it points out that the total
sales involving the copyrighted material have only totaled $1,600.00.
In its complaint,
Material Express.com alleges that i2 Technologies is attempting
to protect its monopoly position in this industry through a series
of actions including filing of lawsuits, interfering with contracts
between Material Express.com and its customers, and knowingly spreading
false and disparaging information regarding the company.
Barry Mester,
Material Express.com President and CEO, said in taking this action,
“It is unfortunate that a large, publicly owned corporation such
as i2 would resort to such illegal actions in order to protect their
monopoly in the electrical materials price and product update field.
Our company is simply offering a superior product at a lower price,
and we ask only to be free to compete on a level playing field.”
Mester added
"We will continue to take all of the steps necessary to enable us
to compete fairly in the marketplace."
About
Material Express.com
Material Express.com
is a privately held California Corporation providing standardized
product and pricing information to the electrical industry. Established
in 1998 by executives from Vision InfoSoft Corporation, a leading
supplier of software and information products to the construction
industry since 1992, Material Express.com has developed a comprehensive
database of over 1 million electrical materials containing product
pricing, specifications and catalog pages. Its innovative EPIC (Electronic
Pricing Information and Catalogs) service includes software and
data for Windows-based computers and is rapidly being accepted by
electrical distributors throughout the U.S. as an alternative to
older, paper-based products. The new APeX (Advanced Pricing Exchange)
makes its comprehensive database available to electrical distributors
to update their internal computer systems. For
Further Information, contact:
Barry
Mester at bmester@materialexpress.com
or 800-594-7044
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