Newsroom
Chu notes patent litigation impact on CUs
The toll on credit unions from patent-troll lawsuits was highlighted during Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on H.R. 3309, "Improving the Patent System to Promote American Innovation and Competitiveness."
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said one of her constituent credit unions was an end-user of a technology product it used for online banking features on its website, and it received a demand letter claiming infringement. Because of the credit union's limited means, it had to decide whether to reduce staff in order to proceed to defend itself in an action it would likely win, or settle.The credit union, as many entities faced with similar circumstances have done, chose to settle despite no wrongdoing.
NAFCU supports patent reform that addresses the problems credit unions
face involving baseless litigation associated with low-quality patents.
Committee members and witnesses agreed that Tuesday's hearing was well-timed.
Lawmakers said they recognize the growing trend of non-practicing entities purchasing patents for the sole purpose of either licensing out or threatening merchants or end-users with litigation.
Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., author of H.R. 3309, said enactment of this bill is "central to U.S. competiveness, job creation, and our nation's future economic security."
Witnesses in Tuesday's hearing included: EMC Corporation Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Krish Gupta; Yahoo! Inc. Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property Kevin Kramer; David Kappos, former under secretary of commerce for intellection property at the Patent and Trademark Office; and Eli Lilly & Co. Former General Counsel Robert Armitage.
NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler wrote the committee leaders Monday in support of several reforms within the bill. He called attention to the Transitional Program for the Review of Covered Business Method Patents, or CMB program, and noted concern about the limits on the scope of patents that can be reviewed.
"Given how problematic this issue has been for not-for-profit credit unions, NAFCU believes that arbitrarily limiting the program could lead to additional and unnecessary burden on our members," Thaler wrote. NAFCU also joined with other trade associations in a letter to Goodlatte thanking him for his leadership and the positive reforms included in this legislation.
Share This
Related Resources
Resiliency In Your Incident Response Plan
Cybersecurity
preferred partner
DefenseStorm
Blog Post
The Bottom Line on Insurance Tracking and Collateral Protection
Strategy
preferred partner
Allied Solutions
Blog Post
Add to Calendar 2024-04-15 09:00:00 2024-04-15 09:00:00 Mergers and Acquisitions: Unifying Two Different Executive Total Compensation and Benefits Programs Listen On: Key Takeaways: [03:50] With the merger of a smaller credit union into a larger one you are really only dealing with integrating staff into the larger credit union. [05:53] When working with a merger of equals we start with a deep dive into the executive compensation and benefits of each organization. [09:09] If your current executive benefits provider doesn’t conduct regular plan evaluations, consider having a plan audit anyway. [13:46] Don’t overpay for these things if you don’t have to. When you have more options available that means the cost is more appropriate. [17:11] It is in a unified organization’s best interest to do tier timelines where we look at your top executives who are critical to the unified organization’s success today and then slowly add in the next levels. Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Mergers and Acquisitions: Unifying Two Different Executive Total Compensation and Benefits Programs
preferred partner
Gallagher
Podcast
Add to Calendar 2024-04-11 14:00:00 2024-04-11 14:00:00 Regulation E: Impacts Across Your Institution Dive into regulatory excellence with, Regulation E: Impacts Across Your Institution. This webinar is tailored to empower you with the knowledge and strategies necessary to effectively implement the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) and Regulation E within your operations. You’ll explore how to apply Regulation E across various business areas to ensure compliance obligations are met with precision. Key Takeaways Learn the basics of EFTA and Regulation E Understand how to apply Regulation E at your organization to detect processes and transactions that require Regulation E compliance Discover how Regulation E may apply to a large breath of areas in your institutions and functions for which you may rely on third-party vendors Review recent enforcement activity for non-compliance with EFTA and Regulation E Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 11, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCCOs NCRMs Compliance and risk titles Education Credits NCCOs will receive 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Regulation E: Impacts Across Your Institution
Credits: NCCO, NCRM
Webinar
Get daily updates.
Subscribe to NAFCU today.