TYLER, Texas—Wells Fargo has filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas asking it to stay a second jury's decision that found the bank intentionally infringed on certain USAA remote deposit capture (RDC) patents. Wells Fargo was ordered the bank to pay $103 million in damages in the case.
Wells Fargo previously filed the same motion for another jury decision that resulted in $200 million in damages. It has not formally requested an appeal in either lawsuit.
The first lawsuit dealt with autocapture technology, while the second dealt with broader patents, including the technology that reads the check to verify the routing/account numbers and the information submitted by the consumer, NAFCU noted.
In addition to these cases, NAFCU said it is also monitoring a vendor's request for judgment that its technology does not infringe on USAA's patents. Mitek Systems – the vendor – provides RDC technology to Wells Fargo and thousands of other financial institutions. Last month, USAA filed a motion to dismiss Mitek's request; Mitek last week filed its response to that motion.
USAA in late 2017/early 2018 began sending letters to credit unions alleging that the credit union's RDC technology infringed on patents owned by USAA. Through these letters, USAA sought voluntary licensing fees from other financial institutions and invited credit unions to call the firm to discuss licensing USAA patents.