Dallas, TX -- Excentus Corporation has filed a patent and trademark infringement lawsuit against QuikTrip Corporation, Midax, Inc. and several companies operating Price Chopper grocery stores.

The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri for unspecified damages, alleges among other things that the Chopper Shopper Fuel Rewards program infringes on patents owned by Excentus as well as its federally-registered "Fuel Rewards" trademark.

The other companies named in the suit are McKeever Enterprises, Inc.; Bresette Foods, Inc.; Four B. Corp.; Queen Enterprises, L.L.C.; Cosentino Enterprises, Inc.; and Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc.

"QuikTrip contacted us regarding obtaining technology and services for the fuel discount loyalty programs they were developing for Price Chopper (Kansas City) and others, and we did our best to work with them to avoid this situation," said Dickson Perry, Founder and CEO of Excentus. "Since they have chosen to continue without a license for our patents or our 'Fuel Rewards' trademark, they left us no choice but to file this suit as we are very serious about protecting our intellectual property."

Excentus acquired its initial patent portfolio from Autogas back in 2008. It has since been awarded additional patents and has numerous patent applications pending at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In 2009, Excentus filed a similar patent infringement suit against Safeway for its Power Pump Rewards program that was subsequently discontinued by Safeway and the suit was settled in 2010. Soon afterward, Excentus filed a lawsuit against Kroger that alleges among other things patent infringement and theft of trade secrets regarding Kroger's fuel loyalty program. This lawsuit remains pending in Ohio.

About Excentus

Excentus Corporation is the market leader in providing loyalty marketing programs, technology and services utilizing fuel discounts as the ultimate consumer reward. Through its Fuel Rewards Network program which is rapidly expanding nationwide, Centego business unit which offers technology and services to create and operate private-label fuel discount loyalty programs, and broad portfolio of patents, patent application and trademarks, Excentus creates and operates programs utilizing fuel discounts that increase and retain customer loyalty and increase sales by saving consumers $100s of millions of dollars on their fuel purchases. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Excentus Corp. was founded in 1996 and is a privately held company with over 200 employees and 150 customers in the U.S. and Canada.