Pi-NET International Inc v. Cal Poly Federal Credit Union

Pi-Net International filed seven separate suits against 1st Valley Credit Union, Cal Poly Federal Credit Union, Inland Valley Federal Credit Union, Media City Community Credit Union, My Credit Union, San Jose Credit Union, and the South Bay Credit Union, alleging that the defendants’ real-time, two-way transaction systems operated in connection with Web banking services infringe three patents related to Web-based transactions.  Pi-Net has filed over 20 prior suits since March 2012 against defendants including Avis, Bank of America, Capital One, Enterprise, ING Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, and UBS Financial.  Dr. Lakshmi Arunachalam is the president of Pi-Net and the named inventor on the patents-in-suit.  One of the in-suit-patents was issued to Arunachalam and directly assigned to Pi-Net in June 1997.  The two other patents were issued to Arunachalam and assigned to Pi-Net by WebXchange in March 2012.  According to Arunachalam’s LinkedIn profile, she is also the President and CEO of WebXchange.  In March 2008, WebXchange filed three patent infringement suits against Allstate, Dell, and FedEx, and was subject to an action for declaratory judgment brought by Microsoft in November 2008.  11/7, Northern District of California, assigned to Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, 3:2012cv05733; assigned to Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu, 4:2012cv05732; 11/13, Central District of California, assigned to Judge Dean D. Pregerson and referred to Magistrate Judge Paul L. Abrams, 2:2012cv09699; assigned Judge Dean D. Pregerson and referred to Magistrate Judge Victor B. Kenton, 2:2012cv09703; assigned to Judge George H. King and referred to Magistrate Judge Paul L. Abrams, 2:2012cv09705; assigned to Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr. and referred to Magistrate Judge Oswald Parada, 5:2012cv01989, 5:2012cv01990.