A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin last week returned a unanimous verdict finding Blackhawk Network liable for infringing two InComm patent claims, InComm announced Tuesday.
The jury awarded the Atlanta-based prepaid product and transaction-services company approximately $3.5 million in damages as a result of Blackhawk's repeated use over the past two years of InComm's patented computer system and method entitled "System and Method for Authorizing Stored Value Card Transactions."
Pleasanton, Calif.-based Blackhawk is taking steps to remove the infringing source code and thus the related computer program capabilities from its platform, according to InComm, which plans to seek a permanent injunction prohibiting Blackhawk from further infringement for the remaining life of its patent.
In a statement, Blackhawk said the case related to eight lines of source code that were part of Blackhawk's gift card activation platform, but not used. "Blackhawk has since removed the portions of the unused code found to infringe. This modification has no effect on how Blackhawk operates and has no impact on its customers," the company said.
The same jury directed Blackhawk to pay damages in the amount of $3.475 million to the plaintiff for the period from August 2009 through February 2012, with no further payments due as the result of Blackhawk's removal of the lines of code, the statement said. "While the damages represent an immaterial impact to Blackhawk's financial results for these periods, Blackhawk is weighing whether to file an appeal," the company said.
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