Costco Wholesale Corp.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (commonly "Costco"; NASDAQ: COST) is a publicly traded membership-warehouse retailer headquartered at 999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, Washington. Costco began operations in 1983 in Seattle, founded by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman (its predecessor Price Club dates to 1976). It is a standalone public company, not a subsidiary. Per its FY2025 Form 10-K (year ended August 31, 2025), Costco operated 914 warehouses worldwide and reported net sales of roughly $269 billion (total revenue about $275 billion) with net income near $8.1 billion; third-party profiles put headcount around 341,000 and market capitalization near $400 billion.

Operations. Costco operates membership-only warehouse clubs and e-commerce sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the U.K., Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New Zealand. It sells a limited selection of nationally branded and private-label goods (notably the Kirkland Signature line) across grocery, general merchandise, and other categories, supplemented by ancillary businesses including pharmacy, optical, fuel, food service, and travel. Revenue is split roughly 55% grocery and 25% general merchandise, supported by annual membership fees.

Patent-litigation posture. Costco appears in the tracked data solely as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases, 1 defendant case) — the profile of an operating company targeted by a patent holder rather than a patent enforcer. The single tracked suit was filed in the plaintiff-friendly U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas before Judge Rodney Gilstrap.

Notable case. RFCyber Corp. v. Costco Wholesale Corp. (E.D. Tex., 2:24-cv-00546) was filed July 18, 2024. RFCyber, a Plano, Texas-based, inventor-backed patent assertion entity, alleged that contactless-payment functionality in the Costco mobile app infringed U.S. Patent No. 8,448,855 ("Method and Apparatus for Funding an Electronic Purse"). Costco was represented by Perkins Coie. RFCyber filed near-simultaneous complaints against Kroger, Shell, Starbucks, Walmart, and Volkswagen, and had earlier asserted related contactless-payment patents against Apple, Samsung, Google, and LG. Costco's case was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) on October 18, 2024, with each party bearing its own costs; the order adjudicated no claim on the merits.