SAN FRANCISCO Four more credit unions being sued for patent infringement over real-time transaction technology have agreed to settle the civil claims in exchange for license deals, making a total of eight settling credit unions.
The latest settlements with Pi-Net International, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on July 10, are by First Valley CU, Inland Valley CU, South Bay CU and Media City Community CU.
They follow recent Pi-Net settlements with My Credit Union, Cal Poly FCU, 1st Commonwealth Central CU and PremierOne CU, the product of a merger of San Jose CU and National 1st CU, both of which were being sued separately by Pi-Net.
In its suits, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Pi-Net International Inc. claims the credit unions are using technology patented by its owner, Dr. Lakshmi Arunachalam, between 1995 and 2012 while she worked at Bell Labs.
Pi-Net has filed patent infringement cases related to the technology against more than 50 entities over the past two years and has reached similar licensing deals recently with: Capital One, UBS Financial, First National Bank of Northern California, WSFC Financial Corp., Citizens Financial Group, Hertz Corp., Mission National Bank, Enterprise Holdings, Avis Budget Group, U-Haul International and Ace Rent-A-Car,
At least one defendant in the suits, SAP, has requested that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office conduct a post-patent review on the disputed technology, as required in the 2010 patent reform bill known as America Invents.
