Vesdia Corporation Acquires Additional Patent Rights Related to Retail Shopping Transactions and Customer Loyalty

ATLANTA, GA; NEWHALL, CA (PRWEB) January 18, 2005

Vesdia® Corporation, a global leader in the field of private-label loyalty solutions, announced today that it has acquired rights to a family of patents held by SOURCE®, Inc. Key among the inventions is a U.S. Patent entitled “Centralized consumer cash value accumulation system for multiple merchants,” which includes 21 claims on methods and systems related to retail point-of-sale transactions. Combined, the group of patents provides specific coverage for several inventions related to the electronic tracking of shopping transactions for the purpose of providing consumers rebates from multiple retailers.

The addition of the patents to the pre-existing Vesdia portfolio creates one of the most comprehensive accumulations of intellectual property related to gift certificates, coupons, credit cards, electronic transactions and consumer loyalty assembled to date. “Enhancing the strength and scope of our intellectual property portfolio is an important aspect of our strategy for maintaining a leadership position in the fields of transaction processing and consumer loyalty,” stated Peter G. Davis, President and CEO of Vesdia Corporation. “While the acquisition of these patent protections represents a significant investment, it is more than justified by the off-setting increase in our long-term shareholder value,” continued Davis.

As part of the reciprocal transaction Vesdia has also agreed to add its patents, technology platform and four primary loyalty brands, BabyMint®, NestEggz™, FundraiserRewards™ and StockBack® into the SCORE Rewards Network™. Now, as part of the SCORE Rewards Network™, affinity groups will have access to these loyalty programs and can either private label the programs, or provide them to their members under their existing brand names. By providing this type of multi-platform access to multiple affinity groups, the members and merchant partners will have little reason to ever switch programs because they can access the benefits of other programs while remaining loyal to the affinity group that originally enrolled them.

“SOURCE is extremely pleased to add Vesdia to the growing list of loyalty companies that are bringing the strength of their technologies, patents, members and merchants to the SCORE Rewards Network™ for the reciprocal value they can receive,” said Richard G. Stewart, Jr., Founder and CEO of SOURCE®, Inc. “SOURCE is committed to building the Network™ and tracking Network™ Transactions. These transactions will add significant value to our members and merchant affiliates while giving back to the community and charitable organizations through our Humanitarian Empowerment Loyalty Program™ (H.E.L.P.™).” He went on to add, “Vesdia believes in the strength of our patents and value of our network and has agreed to help build it. I believe that together, we can unite and elevate the fragmented loyalty industry to new levels of effectiveness and profitability, much like the way reciprocation has benefited the time share, real estate and insurance industries in the past. We also fully expect that by working together, Vesdia and SOURCE can more cost effectively enforce our collective intellectual property rights,” concluded Stewart.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the National Retail Federation’s 94th annual convention being held in Chicago, where several key executives from Vesdia and client merchants are meeting this week. It is believed that several additional announcements regarding Vesdia’s merchant network will follow the conclusion of the NRF convention.

About Vesdia Corporation Vesdia is widely recognized as the global leader in the field of loyalty marketing technology. Through its network of top-name retailers and name brands, Vesdia’s patent-protected technology enables consumers to earn rebates and similar rewards through their everyday spending. In addition to serving as the “rewards engine” behind its own award-winning coalition loyalty programs, BabyMint and Stockback, the company's proprietary technology is also licensed by more than a dozen financial institutions, retailers, and credit card issuers in the U.S., Canada, and Asia to facilitate customer loyalty. Vesdia Corporation is a privately held company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information please visit http://www.Vesdia.com.

About SOURCE, Inc.

SOURCE is a loyalty industry pioneer that has licensed and authorized its subsidiary company, SRN Global, to combine the loyalty programs of many companies and non-profit organizations into a global coalition called the SCORE Rewards Network™ (“Network™”). Using a time-proven reciprocal business model in which competitive companies join a common network, SRN Global provides the infrastructure, financial incentives and patent-protected technologies that allow diverse affinity groups to integrate their loyalty programs, intellectual properties and patents into a larger shared Network™. Affinity groups benefit from their access to additional products, services, technologies and profit opportunities, while providing their members/consumers with unprecedented loyalty-building value and an automated fundraising mechanism for helping specified charities and communities where the loyalty purchases occur. Merchant participants gain additional market exposure, advertising and customer traffic. They are provided with new marketing tools and data to help them grow their business and better manage their customer relationships. The customers who shop at these “SCORE Merchants” can enjoy all the rebates, rewards and other incentives they offer while still remaining loyal to their original sponsoring Affinity Group. SOURCE and SRN Global are headquartered in Newhall, California. For more information, visit http://www.srnglobal.com

###