Citizens Equity First Credit Union of Peoria, Ill., has been slapped with a lawsuit over an alleged infringement of so-called “Remote Limit Setting Information”, aka the 793 patent.
The parent infringement suit against the $4.7 billion credit union, better known as CEFCU, was filed in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District for Illinois by Sonic Industry LLC of Delaware.
In recent months, Sonic Industry has become an energetic filer of patent infringement litigation against financial institutions including Texans Credit Union (conserved by NCUA over other issues), BMO Harris Bank, Bank of America, Compass Bank, U.S. Bancorp, and a lengthening list of other banks and credit unions.
The suit against CEFCU elaborated: “The 793 patent was duly and legally issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on September 21, 1999, after full and fair examination, for systems and methods for setting limits on a remote information system.”
The suit continued: “Upon information and belief, Defendant has infringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the 793 patent by making, using, providing, offering to sell, and selling (directly or through intermediaries), in this district and elsewhere in the United States, systems and methods for using a remote device to set a selection and limit on a server.”
The suit as filed seeks damages but amounts are not specified.
Documentation filed in relation to the patent that allegedly has been infringed elaborated: “A remotely configurable information distribution system selectively filters inbound information in response to selection and limit parameters provided by a remotely connected processing device. The selection and limit parameters are assembled as a data packet at the device and the packet is uploaded to the host computer over a limited-bandwidth, communications network. Remote software modules resident in the device facilitate both entry of the parameters by an authorized user and the subsequent transfer of those parameters to the host computer.”
Mark Spenny, CEO of CEFCU, had not responded to an emailed request for elaboration of the credit union’s position on the suit.
