Offerpal Media, an advertising platform concentrated on helping developers monetize social networks by offering virtual currency in exchange for participating in ‘offers’ like online surveys, has filed suit against Kickflip, the company behind the Gambit payment engine.
As first reported in GigaOm, the suit alleges that Kickflip temporarily used Offerpal’s services for the purpose of stealing knowledge of how the service worked, which it then used to start a competitor. From the suit:
[Kickflip] misrepresented its intentions in forming a relationship with Offerpal, and then used the information and trade secrets learned in the course of the relationship to develop and improve Defendant’s own competing service.
Kickflip responds that the suit has “absolutely no merit”. The company originally started off as a game developer in 2007 (you can see a list of their old games here). The company says that during that time it has tried to use OfferPal and SuperRewards (an OfferPal competitor) to monetize their games but that both were unable to meet their needs, so they built their own service. The company’s ‘about’ page offers a similar background:
In 2007, we formed kickflip inc. to build online games, eventually reaching over 7 million users. We had the same problem you have…making money. So we built all the tools we needed to help users pay for our games. Our users loved it. We loved it. So we thought we’d allow a few friends to use it. Surprisingly, the developers and their users liked it too. Since then we’ve been focused on providing the easiest payment solution for online games and communities.
Kickflip has issued the following statement regarding the suit:
We were game makers long before we built Gambit. As game makers, we used the services of both OfferPal and SuperRewards. We noticed these services couldn’t keep up with our needs, so we decided to build our own, which turned into Gambit. Since then we have been building partnerships with game developers. We have a lot of respect for the business OfferPal has developed, and it is unfortunate that they feel it necessary to sue a former customer and game developer. We are confident that this lawsuit has absolutely no merit, and we plan to fully defend ourselves. If you have further questions, feel free to contact our lawyer:
Eric Benisek
Vasquez, Benisek & Lindgren LLP
925-627-4250
Unless KickFlip signed an Non-Disclosure I don’t see the precedent here for a lawsuit. Sounds like bullying by lawyer to me. Note I am not an attorney, I just play one on TV (not really).
BTW, the reason there are so few comments on this thread is because everyone is desperately trying to squat their favorite Facebook vanity URL right now.
Shall we call such “stealing” marketing research? as we always did for launching any serious project. You get info through public channels like being a customer of your future competitors.
According to OfferPal, you buy a car from a car dealer so you know how to sell car, then you can’t become a car dealer.
Only before those insane ad prices fall off the cliff.
Why is everyone all scared of competition? Man up, compete… snickers is better for mars.. cowards hiding behind this crap.. turn over your mancard.. suing the only way you can compete.. that is weak
yea offerpal sucks, go gambit
It seems that Offerpal is trying to put Gambit out of business here by being asses and racking up legal costs for a smaller competitor. Offerpal is 4x – 5x bigger and can afford to dish out WAY more money for lawyers than Gambit can.
the sad part of this is that this might actually work…classic case of Buy, Build or Sue. Gambit may run out of money trying to defend themselves since they haven’t raised anywhere near the $15 – 20million that Offerpal has.
That is retarded.
So what if they used OfferPal as a customer.
Customers compete with vendors all the time.
This just gives Gamit more legitimacy as a competitive player in the space.
For a company that’s raise $20M bucks, its pretty lame to resort to this sort of tacit to attack a much smaller competitor.
I switched over to gambit from offerpal 3 months ago because they promised me 95% margin. I know gambit doesn’t make much money because they keep such a low margin. With the costs of defending this suit, will they have enough money to continue writing checks? I’m worried…
good point. i’ve been using gambit for the last few months and noticed their performance is starting to slip. maybe those 95% margins are starting to get taken away?
The Kickflip is right. There is no merit in this suit. It’s like saying Microsoft should be sued for trying to replicate Google and Yahoo in their Live service or trying to sue a former employee of McDonald’s who started their own restaurant chain. It’s just stupid.
Those guys actually sue each other all the time. It’s fairly common in the tech space. Everyone has a right to protect their IP from getting stolen by clients, partners, employees, etc. I for one don’t blame OfferPal.
Cali NDs / non-competes are pretty hard to enforce the last time i looked…that is they max out quickly .
OfferPal…. a.k.a OfferScam, OfferSpam, ScamPal, SpamPal, etc.
Shit service.
Hey Offerpal,
Dinner is served.
8====D~~
Bon Apetit!
I liked Offerpal but someone should call Lil Jon b/c this is pretty low.
Well, I’m sure I speak for many developers when I say I will never ever consider using an ad network that sues it’s own customers. If I worked for OfferPal, I’d start polishing up my resume.
OfferPal should change their name to SuePal. At least that name is representative of their true colors.
I am not so convinced.
I was at a conference a while back with a few people from Offerpal.
They shared stories about kicking puppies for fun and paying bums to fight over day-old pizza in the street of San Francisco.
I think OfferPal is just pissy that one of their people jumped ship & went to SuperRewards.
Now they’re shitting their pants and trying to sue another competitor before more of their people see the joke that is OopsPal.
I support Offerpal. You cannot offer to use a service and than turn around and steal their intellectual property and rights. The courts will be for Offerpal, this is a clear case of intellectual theft.
For any of you who have startups, the equity, money, intellectual property and time that goes into acquiring a client is hard enough. You do not need a customer in good faith stealing from you after.
It’s like taking in a homeless man and having that homeless man steal you. In rule of the law, its against the law. The law exist to protect you not matter how stupid you may be.
Drown them Offerpal!
Well from you logic, I might as well stop all programming. I have used email, gmail, facebook, ebay, countless shopping carts software, played games. I guess it times to hang up the old keyboard and mouse, there is nothing I can program without get sued. Anyone need a pool boy? Oh wait I watched a pool boy work one day, can’t even do that anymore.
Sue the pants off Offerpal, there marketing department saw how link bait lawsuits turn into publicity, someone step forward and claim it as a trade secret.
Also, what kind of lame IP claims does Offerpal have?
I’ve seen their plug in Zynga … Im not impressed.
You really should read gmail terms of service section 10.2 – it says they can sue you if you reverse engineer, decompile, etc etc ( legal bs) Wow – just for using gmail. Thats it- I am moving to China – where I am free to rip off anything I see. Maybe I will just copy Facebook – oh wait somebody already did that….
Cats, there are a bunch of other incentivized offer platforms out there. Peanut labs existed long before Offerpal, and I’m sure there were a ton before that. There are a million blogs, and a million sites that are like amazon. I may create a site that sells something like Amazon does, but I’ve been a customer of Amazon previously. Would they sue me? Why wouldn’t Offerpal just focus on making a better product for their customers and vendors instead of going to court? Why would you support them in doing something that’s so greedy and annoying. What is your real identity?
i’d recommend doing some digging into how offerpal was started… do that and you’ll find this lawsuit very ironic. they’re lucky they haven’t been sued themselves.
It’s like saying Microsoft should be sued for trying to replicate Google and Yahoo in their Live service or trying to sue a former employee of McDonald’s who started their own restaurant chain.
Those guys actually sue each other all the time. It’s common practice in the technology sector. Companies have to protect themselves from partners, customers, employees, etc. stealing their IP. I don’t blame OfferPal at all.
Oh and Google did not sue Microsoft and vice versa and Blockbuster /Netflix dont sue each other , whoa all the soal -big game developers are busy suing each other – and the Mob Wars guy is suing all the big guys…Who cares! All this BS is just a bunch of competitors bashing each other , pretending to be “app developers” Puhleese
Just recently started using Gambit to monetize entrecard’s virtual currency and have been very impressed. I do believe it’s true that because gambit is smaller and boot strapped, they can offer better payouts. Their team is talented and hard working, but publicity has been a challenge. Ironically, by suing Gambit, Offerpal is giving their competitor a lot of publicity.
Exactly, if the courts are sensible and rule in favor of Gambit then this lawsuit might be the making of them.
Gamit shld just do a press release and get more publicity – yeah – having your ass hauled to court and people wondering if they will be around to make payments – yeah that will be great deal for them, Numnuts!
Lol Google should be suing Yahoo and Bing.
TechCrunch is not updating posts?
TechCrunch got hacked or what?
The Facebook post doesn’t allow comments…
It says contact admin after comment is posted…
Resorting to legal action when a competitor emerges is indicative of a weak company, they obviously don’t feel that their product alone will ensure their continued survival, suing is always so much easier.
There’s something slightly anti-capitalist about this kind of behavior. Best of luck to Kickflip.
offerpal is hype and now in a unmerited lawsuit. wonder what their revenues are lol
Offerpal = lame. Insecure company with a poor and dying business model. This isn’t the first time they’ve pulled a stunt like this. There is virtually no technology barrier to running a system like theirs and so they run around toting the litigation charge.
Oh, and Offerpal employees *look* like pricks.
Very mature. Are you from gambit or super rewards? let’s save the name calling for twitter.
very mature. are you from gambit or super rewards. let’s save the name calling for twitter, shall we?
Sorry you got fired Man – but save your shit for your personal blog – where you are not so anonymous..
Not that this post needs more offerpal bashing, but I am a customer of both and have always found gambit to be much better. In a much shorter period of time gambit has managed to offer a much better service.
Offerpal’s reporting interface is a joke, why can’t I see past 30 days of revenue? Why can’t stats be updated in real time? Why don’t I have the option to customize the offer page interface to my website? Why don’t I have the option to offer an increased conversion rate for larger purchases? Why can’t I get a chart of how much money each individual offer brings in? Why do my users constantly complain about not getting any response from your customer service? These are all features that could have been implemented in half the time it took you to make up that lawsuit.
Considering that offerpal’s “IP” can be duplicated by a college freshman in a weekend, perhaps they are starting to realize that they will never be the only players in this business.
Maybe you should duplicate it on the weekend – and join the crowd of unsustainable businesses – dont waste too much time on the reporting – I just want to get my checks on time
mr. money — I’m not sure what reports you’re looking at but i’m also a customer of both offerpal and gambit and I actually think offerpal’s reports are superior. The reports aren’t just for 30 days — they go back through the full history of your time with them. And from what I can tell they are real-time, or at least darn close to it. The interface IS customizable and you CAN increase the exchange rate. And as for customer service, i think offerpal has proven they’re clearly superior to anyone else in this regard. Just check any of the developer forums on facebook or myspace. It seems like you’re just coming up with ways to lay on the offerpal bashing. Personally I don’t care about the lawsuit. I’m sticking with whoever makes me the most money, and that has consistently been Offerpal.
Ok, so show me how to go back more than 30 days in the dashboard. I am using their facebook app dashboard at apps.facebook.com/offerpalmedia.
Also I get a much higher CPM with gambit hands down, I’ve done lots of testing and gambit always comes out ahead. Where do I go to customize the interface? I’m not coming up with ways to bash offerpal, I’ve had these complaints long before I was award of gambit, then when gambit finally came around it was such a refresher.
This case is similar to TrialPay suing the pants out of dealUnited. Case closed! German company trying to rip TrialPay off and still their German customers.
http://www.tria...&article=28
(their original link is broken)
TrialPay (started in 2006)is also doing virtual currency. Guess what, OfferPal copied them not too long ago. TrialPay started in 2006, OfferPal in June 2007.
For those who don’t think Gambit or OfferPal is long term, consider TrialPay. They’re not big in the space, mostly b/c the concentrate on the bigger folks like LavaSoft.
They have good reporting – good UI (although their homepage SUCKS), SMART people, very fast response times for both merchants and your customers. Very good reputation.
One of my good friends owns a app doing 50k+ per week with offerpal- Im going to do my best to convince him to switch to gambit.
haha ….would be see an answer after sues ..funny ..
MOP is in an unsustainable business and now Gambit is hammering them. Go Gambit! If you haven’t switched already do so. No VC backing = more money for developers!
It’s funny that a company even thinks an iframe of scams is defensible. They should sue their VC’s for making them believe it’s any more than fast cash.
Hmm I am making all my money from Offerpal – I split of traffic all the time and try just about anyone – so all I care about is numbers. I hope you are wrong – that this money flow does not dry up – or I will have to go back to my day job..
I am a long time app developer and monetizer
on the facebook platform.
Essentially, there are four players in this virtual currency monetization market:
OfferPal – They have received enough bashing so will leave them alone
Super Rewards – Well established and great people to work with
AdParlor – Great performance and also great people to work with
Gambit – Up and coming strong!
I often rotate between these four companies offer walls. Recently OfferPal has been slipping hard. With AdParlor and Gambit having entered the game, they are really increasing the level of competition in this space and it seems that SR is keeping up. Would love to see AdParlor and Gambit continue to take market share as that is good for everyone!
What about Peanut Labs and TrialPay. At Watercooler we integrated with TrialPay and I’m interested to know why they never get included in the mix when tech bloggers talk about these alternative payment platforms. We looked at all of the players and TP had a better product with better reporting capabilities. Thoughts?
OfferPal does suck. I am make the same if not more with Gambit, and they have superior customer service and transparency. It’s like pulling teeth to get someone from OfferPal to get back to me.
And for those comments on TrialPay, their eCPM’s are much lower than Gambit, SuperRewards and OfferPal.
Brad – curious to know your comparison in terms of eCPM for Gambit, SuperRewards, and OfferPal – Also have you tried AdParlor? How do they compare?
I tried a few and talked to a few friends who tried others – hear Gambit had some big fraud issues and so called eCPMs deflated , plus I worry that they are not going to be around for long, Super Rewards gave out so much currency in one case that it practically ruined the game, so right now I give about 75% of my traffic to Offerpal – their customer service is top notch and I like my account rep .
TrialPay is worthless. They don’t know anything about the virtual currency space. Their revenue was 50% less than SuperRewards and Gambit when we tested them. To me, TrialPay and OfferPal are on in the same, overbloated and overhyped. I only work with Gambit and SuperRewards now.
I used Super Rewards and Offerpal and Super Rewards had a terrible customer service. Their peeps were rude and snobby. Im not sure how Gambit’s customer service is, but I definitely think that all these tech companies have some disclosure and Gambit didnt meet it. Too bad, it looks like they wont be around long and I wouldnt be able to check them out.
I find it ironic that OP is suing their former client when they are not even the ones who invented their tools.
Back in 2006, a company called CPALead came out and invented the postback function and a tool called the ‘ASD’: Automatic Survey Display. They used this tool primarily in the MMORPG market and never quite penetrated Facebook.
OP does not hold any patents for any specific technology, so where is the merit in this suit?
http://www.prwe...prweb421812.htm
Check out that press release. It’s from August of 2006. OP was not around then and their tools are literal ripoffs of CPALead. So is SuperRewards and all the others who came along and used the idea to hit Facebook. You don’t see CPALead running around suing everyone.
Welcome to the Bay.
Offerpal should focus on improving its monetization platform, rather than making a fool by suing companies that are performing better.
I am not an app developer nor do I have my own website. But what I am is a customer of Gambit thru a virtual reality website. I have very limited exposure to OfferPal, but I CAN tell you that Gambit customer service is horrendous. If you want to see how your customers might react to Gambit, go to the forum site of SmallWorlds.com. You will see multiple complaints with slow reaction and response times from Gambit…if they bother to even answer at all. If you use Gambit exclusively, be prepared to see an escalation in customer/consumer complaints. They may have valued and had a strong customer service percent ratio in the beginning, but 2 years later, they have definitely started a downward spiral, that will affect your rapport with your consumer base. As you know, if someone likes a product or service, they MAY tell 3 or 4 people, but if the consumer has a bad experience, you can just about guarantee they WILL tell at least 10 others. I don’t know how Gambit, may have been, but NOW, I know they do NOT value customer service.
I also am not an app developer. But have used OP, and I will say that THEIR cs stinks! I spent 1 day completing “offers” andwas not rewarded with my points. I emailed and spoke with and Alton D. was his name. he rectified a small portion of the points…there were still many not rewarded. After 2 more emails I was finally given my “points”, only to now receive an email stating that, there must be some type of issue with my computer and I would now be “disabled” from completing any more offers. So now on all the apps I use on FB, I can not fill out any of the offers. I have been banned? Gor you game developers that means you make NO $$…..I and my 3 kids all use FB. How much $$ do you think you loose from us? and the ppl we tell about our experience? Offerpal stinks!