Citizens Equity First Credit Union of Peoria, Ill., has beenslapped with a lawsuit over an alleged infringement of so-called “Remote LimitSetting Information”, aka the 793 patent.

The parent infringement suit against the $4.7 billion creditunion, better known as CEFCU, was filed in the U.S. District Court's Northern Districtfor Illinois by Sonic Industry LLC of Delaware.

In recent months, Sonic Industry has become an energetic filerof patent infringement litigation against financial institutionsincluding Texans Credit Union (conservedby NCUA over other issues), BMO Harris Bank, Bank of America, Compass Bank, U.S. Bancorp, and a lengthening list ofother banks and credit unions.

The suit against CEFCU elaborated: “The 793 patent was duly andlegally issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office onSeptember 21, 1999, after full and fair examination, for systemsand methods for setting limits on a remote information system.”

The suit continued: “Upon information and belief, Defendant hasinfringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the 793patent by making, using, providing, offering to sell, and selling(directly or through intermediaries), in this district andelsewhere in the United States, systems and methods for using aremote device to set a selection and limit on a server.”

The suit as filed seeks damages but amounts are notspecified.

Documentation filed in relation to the patent that allegedly hasbeen infringed elaborated: “A remotely configurable informationdistribution system selectively filters inbound information inresponse to selection and limit parameters provided by a remotelyconnected processing device. The selection and limit parameters areassembled as a data packet at the device and the packet is uploadedto the host computer over a limited-bandwidth, communicationsnetwork. Remote software modules resident in the device facilitateboth entry of the parameters by an authorized user and thesubsequent transfer of those parameters to the host computer.”

Mark Spenny, CEO of CEFCU, had not responded to an emailedrequest for elaboration of the credit union's position on thesuit.