c4cast.com [NPE] filed eight separate suits against Blockbuster, Dell, Dish Network, Francesca’s Collections, GameStop, JC Penney, Radioshack, Rent-A-Center, and Sally Beauty Supply, alleging that the defendants’ websites infringe one or two patents (depending on the defendant) related to what the complaints describe as ”assigning points to individual resources based on amount of participant access”. These are the first patent infringement suits initiated by c4cast.com.  Mark Rice, Stephen Klein, Michael Phillips, Chapman Findlay, and William Jennings are the named inventors on the patents-in-suit, which were assigned to c4cast.com in September 1999.  According to the company’s website, c4cast.com was founded by Michael Phillips and Chapman Findlay, holds 10 patents, and is the creator of MacroRisk Analytics, EconomicInvestor, DualBeta, and The Economy Matters Reports.  5/7, Eastern District of Texas, no judge yet assigned, 2:2012cv00271; 2:2012cv00272; 2:2012cv00273; 2:2012cv00274; 2:2012cv00275; 2:2012cv00276; 2:2012cv00277; 2:2012cv00278.