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When is a patent just an idea and when is it a plan for the future? That question has been raised in recent weeks as the leading expert on surveillance pricing promoted her new book. Walmart is evidently upset about the national conversation, and this week the company denied that its patents for technologies to maximize sales would be used for surveillance pricing.

Lindsay Owens, the author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price—and What That Means for Your Wallet, has been giving interviews to everyone from Jon Stewart to Gizmodo recently. Owens has talked at length about the ways that companies like Walmart are acquiring patents that could potentially be used for surveillance pricing, the practice of adjusting prices for individual consumers based on their personal information.

Owens is the preeminent expert on the topic, as CEO and President of the Groundwork Collaborative, and testified to Congress back in August about the ways that U.S. consumers are getting gouged. She was Sen. Josh Hawley’s expert witness, which was notable because Republicans aren’t exactly known as the most pro-consumer political party. But Owens has really upset Walmart by talking about things like their new electronic shelf labels and various related patents.

Owens told Gizmodo in an interview last month about one of Walmart’s patents for changing prices through shelf labels that are being rolled out nationally.

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