In a blow to insurer USAA, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a lower-court decision that erased its $218 million patent verdict against PNC Bank, effectively ending a high-stakes battle over mobile check deposit technology.
The justices issued the order without comment, and Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the consideration of the petition, according to the court’s order list.
A Legal Whiplash in Patent Law
The saga began when USAA secured multimillion-dollar jury verdicts against both PNC Bank and Wells Fargo, claiming the banks infringed on its mobile check deposit patents. The verdicts, once heralded as landmark wins for financial tech protection, have now largely evaporated under the weight of conflicting administrative and judicial rulings.
Wells Fargo first challenged the patents before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) through an inter partes review — and lost. But when PNC brought its own challenge against the same patents, the PTAB reached the opposite conclusion and invalidated the claims.
That reversal was later upheld by the Federal Circuit, which in June confirmed that the PTAB had the authority to nullify the jury’s infringement verdicts — including the $218 million award and a related $4.3 million decision from May 2022.
