Jay S. Walker

Walker attended Cornell University where he majored in industrial and labor relations and was a member of the Quill and Dagger society and the Sigma Phi Society. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1978.

While at Cornell, Walker was president of the Ivy League Monopoly Association, and co-authored the book 1000 Ways to Win Monopoly Games, with future Cornell president Jeffrey S. Lehman. This drew the ire of Parker Brothers, who threatened legal action and denied Walker admission to its sanctioned Monopoly tournaments. This in turn led Walker to join forces with Ralph Anspach, the inventor of Anti-Monopoly, who was also engaged in a legal battle with Parker Brothers.

Synapse

In 1992 Walker and Michael Loeb co-founded New Sub Services, today known as Synapse Group, a company that used the credit card network to process magazine subscriptions. By 1998 Synapse had sold 30 million magazine subscriptions, with sales approaching $300 million. For his work, Walker won the Direct Marketing Association’s "Direct Marketer of the Year" award in 1999. In 2004 and 2005, Synapse was named one of the 25 "Best Places to Work in America" among medium-sized companies by the Great Place to Work Institute. As of 2011 Synapse employed more than 250 people.

In 2001 Time Warner purchased a controlling stake in Synapse for a sum in excess of $500 million, completing the transaction in 2006.

Priceline

Walker Digital launched Priceline.com in 1998, partially self-funding the startup company. Loeb also assisted with the early funding of Priceline. Priceline sold an estimated 40,000 tickets in its first quarter of operation. In 1999, Priceline went public. Walker left Priceline in late 2000. The two patents that protected Priceline.com were said to be worth $18.5 billion at the time.

Walker married Eileen McManus on April 18, 1982. They have two children. Eileen Walker is a trustee for Cornell University, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Harvey School in Westchester County, New York and a former personnel executive at IBM.

In January 2001, the Connecticut Attorney General filed suit against Walker Digital. Faced with mounting financial losses, Jay Walker laid off 106 of his 125 employees, violating Federal employment law requiring 60 days notice when laying off more than 33% of the workforce. On September 4, 2002, Walker Digital settled for $275,000 to be split amongst the laid off employees.

In October 15, 2009 Walker Digital, LLC filed its first patent infringement action. The suit against Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, Inc., was decided on January 3, 2011, as non-infringed.

In November 2010 Walker Digital LLC sued Facebook for friending, or "Method and system for establishing and maintaining user-controlled anonymous communications".

On April 11, 2011, Walker Digital filed 15 lawsuits against more than 100 defendants including Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft for unauthorized use of its intellectual properties.

According to a 2016 PBS Newshour profile, "Walker is named on more than 500 issued and pending patents in the U.S. and internationally. But his enforcement of that intellectual property has led some to label him a 'patent troll'." Walker has disputed this characterization, saying he treats litigation as a last resort.