On September 16, 2022, WilmerHale scored a significant victory for client PNC Bank in a patent suit involving mobile banking technology when a jury in US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas rejected USAA’s claim for $80.5 million and a finding of willful patent infringement, and awarded USAA less than 1 percent of the damages to which it claimed entitlement.

This was the fourth jury trial in Marshall, Texas in which USAA asserted patents related to mobile check deposit against a bank. USAA had previously been awarded $200 million, $102 million and $218.45 million in the three separate previous trials.

Last week, a jury rejected USAA’s claim for $80.5 million for 14 months of alleged infringement and instead awarded only $4.3 million for the entire life of the patents, which was less than 1% of what USAA sought. Additionally, while the jury found that there was infringement, it determined it was not willful, unlike in the prior three trials.

The WilmerHale team representing PNC Bank at trial was led by Joe Mueller and Greg Lantier and includes Alyssa Chen, Andrew Danford, Yoseph Desta, Phuc Do, James Dowd, Mark Fleming, Derek Gosma, Makenzi Herbst, Gregory Israelsen, Jason Kipnis, Amy Mahan, Sonal Mehta, David Mlaver, Richard O’Neill, Sarah Petty, Hannah Santasawatkul, Michaela Sewall, Jerry Salvatore and Robert Stiller. The team also includes Gillam & Smith as local counsel.