TJX Companies operates 851 TJ Maxx, 778 Marshalls, 287 HomeGoods, 130 A.J. Wright and 34 Bob's Stores throughout the U.S. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Federal Court in Chicago on November 6, 2007. Card Activation Technologies seeks a royalty from TJX Companies on the activation and processing of its gift cards, plus an injunction to halt further use of gift cards pending TJX obtaining a license agreement from Card Activation Technologies.

According to its SEC filings, TJX Companies achieved $17.4 billion in net sales for fiscal 2007, ended January 27, 2007, of which 78 percent were from U.S. stores. Although there are no specific figures available as to how much of these sales are attributed to gift cards or other stored value cards, it is believed that the total could be significant.

This lawsuit is the seventh filed by the Company in the past two years. Other lawsuits are pending in U.S. Federal Court in Chicago against Sears Holding Corporation, Walgreen Company, Barnes & Noble, Aeropostale, Inc. and OfficeMax Inc. In addition over 400 letters have been sent to other retailers advising them that they are violating the Company's patent, which has been independently valued at $3.7 billion.