Pi-Net International filed suit against Hertz alleging that Hertz’s online web-transaction system infringes two patents related to Web-based transactions.  Pi-Net has filed over 20 prior suits since March 2012 against financial services companies and other car rental companies including Ace Rent A Car, Avis, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Enterprise, Payless Car Rental System and U-Haul. 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.  11/21, Central District of California, 2:2012cv10012.