April 5, 2012 – Judge Leonard Davis of the Eastern District of Texas granted defendant ING Direct’s motion to dismiss plaintiff Secure Axcess’s [NPE] infringement action for lack of personal jurisdiction.  In December 2010, Secure Axcess filed suit against Bank of America, ING Bank, ING Direct, and over 30 regional banks for alleged infringement of a patent related to web page authentication.  ING Direct obtained a dismissal by characterizing itself as a holding company that wholly owns the subsidiary, ING Bank.  Secure Axcess attempted to characterize ING Bank as an entity that operates as an “alter-ego” of ING Direct, which would establish the Court’s personal jurisdiction over ING Direct under Texas’s Long Arm statute.  The judge dismissed this argument by stating, “the companies have gone to great lengths to maintain their corporate boundaries through formal agreements, separate financial statements, and diligent recordkeeping.  Texas law typically requires proof that the parent controls operations of the subsidiary…[because] the parent and subsidiary have respected their corporate boundaries, [this] Court shall also.”  Secure Axcess began its litigation campaign with this lawsuit and filed suit against Dell and 11 others, including a number of e-commerce and financial services companies, in June 2011.  According to the PTO, Intellectual Ventures Finvention assigned the patents-in-suit to Zamalchi Research in December 2010, the same month Secure Axcess initiated its litigation campaign.  3/30, Eastern District of Texas, Judge Leonard Davis, 6:2010cv00670