DataTreasury Corporation, a Long Island-based technology company, announced today that a major patent-infringement lawsuit brought against banking giant JPMorgan Chase has been settled.
This lawsuit was one of several related suits filed by DataTreasury in federal court in Texas. The settlement also applies to former defendants Bank One (now part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.) and in various forms to Viewpointe Archive Services (a check-image archive co-founded by JPMorgan Chase).
DataTreasury had accused JPMorgan Chase of infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 5,910,988 and 6,032,137, which were issued to the Long Island company in 1999 and 2000 for image capture, centralized processing and electronic storage of document and check information. These patents describe a technology process capable of implementing the federally enacted Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, popularly known as "Check 21." The developmental leap that Check 21 encourages--the electronic exchange of digitally imaged checks--is as profound an advancement for the banking industry as the introduction of the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) line was nearly 50 years ago.
After three years of extensive litigation and analysis, JPMorgan Chase concluded that this settlement was in the best interest of its shareholders. Part of the settlement is documented in the form of a Consent Judgment filed in the Dallas and Texarkana divisions of the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas. "It is comforting to my client that this dispute has been resolved through this settlement agreement," said DataTreasury's patent counsel, Rod Cooper of the Dallas-based Cooper Law Firm.
JPMorgan Chase has now been granted a license by DataTreasury, allowing the bank to utilize the patents on a worldwide basis. Terms of the licensing agreement are confidential, but they include "safe harbor" and "most favored licensee" protection for JPMorgan Chase, giving the bank a competitive edge in check-processing. It is clear that JPMorgan Chase understands both the importance of Check 21 and DataTreasury's ability to help the bank fully realize the benefits afforded by that law.
"JPMorgan Chase has shown respect for our patents, and a costly court battle has been resolved," said Claudio Ballard, founder and CEO of DataTreasury and the inventor of the company's patented technology. Keith DeLucia, DataTreasury's President, whose incisive negotiating skills were indispensable in attaining this settlement, added: "Both parties come out winners in a manner that is clearly in the best interest of the stockholders of each company."
"Simply put, a complaint for infringing DataTreasury's patents should be interpreted as a formal invitation to either license or litigate," said DataTreasury's lead counsel, Ed Hohn of Nix, Patterson & Roach, LLP. "We are now preparing to take defendants First Data Corporation and Ingenico to trial."