M&T Bank Corp. has agreed to license a Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing LP patent portfolio covering interactive voice systems.
Katz announced the nonexclusive license with M&T on Monday but did not say how much the Buffalo company would pay.
Katz owns more than 50 patents related to the operations of automated call centers, and it has worked aggressively to protect those patents.
According to some estimates, the Los Angeles company has filed more than 3,000 patent-infringement cases over the past 15 years.
More than 150 companies have reached licensing deals with Katz, including American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., BB&T Corp., Equifax Inc., First Data Corp., First National Bank of Omaha, HSBC Bank USA, KeyCorp, Mellon Financial Corp., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Wachovia Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co.
