BJ’s Asks Judge to Dismiss Walmart Patent Suit Over Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go App

BJ’s Wholesale has called for a federal judge to throw out a patent lawsuit that Walmart filed against it last month, CNBC wrote Friday (April 29).

According to BJ’s, Walmart was trying to protect a self-checkout app based on technology that retailers have been using for over 10 years.

In a court filing, the company said nothing about Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go process is “inventive or unconventional” and many other retailers provide a self-checkout option. Selling a smartphone and Bluetooth, the order said, doesn’t make it eligible for patents.

Walmart’s Sam’s Club is a rival of BJ’s, and both have been embattled in litigation for some time now over the tech that has become a distinguished differentiator for Sam’s. Scan & Go is reportedly a way for customers to ring purchases up on their smartphones, allowing them to avoid a checkout line.

The feature was debuted in 2016, but as the pandemic made it less desirable to shop in person because of the coronavirus, it ballooned in popularity. The report also noted that it was the star of Sam’s Club’s first Super Bowl ad featuring comedian Kevin Hart.

As PYMNTS wrote last month, Walmart has alleged in court filings that BJ’s ExpressPay app infringes on its patent rights and has caused “significant damages and irreparable harm.” ExpressPay rolled out in late 2021.

See also: Walmart Sues Rival, Claiming BJ’s Copied Scan & Go Self-Checkout Tech

In other news, PYMNTS wrote that BJ’s teamed with PayPal to allow customers shopping on BJs.com to pay for their purchases using PayPal, PayPal Credit and PayPal One Touch.

Read more: BJ’s, PayPal Pair For Faster Online Checkout

At the time, a BJ’s executive said the idea was to make shopping easier and more convenient. The report said the integration lets BJ’s members pay for their whole online cart without having to enter card credentials and can access an automatic log-in process by using PayPal One Touch.