USAA sues Regions Bank in latest mobile deposit lawsuit

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USAA sued Regions Bank on Tuesday, alleging the bank infringed on its patents for mobile bank deposits.

For more than a decade, USAA has gone after banking institutions for the use of mobile deposit capture (depositing a check by taking a photo of it in a banking app), a technology USAA claims it invented and holds more than 130 patents for.

"USAA is proud of our innovations, including remote deposit capture technology that has made banking easier for our members – a technology we've continued to improve. In fact, we have been recognized as one of the top innovators in the patent field since 2018," said Nathan McKinley, USAA's vice president and head of corporate development.

Discover Financial Services signed a patent-licensing agreement with USAA in August 2023 to allow it to use mobile capture for remote deposits. Two months later, Truist Bank, a unit of Truist Financial, also entered a patent-licensing agreement, resolving litigation.

USAA partnered with imaging-technology company Mitek more than a decade ago to develop mobile check deposit technology. The companies eventually parted ways after a business dispute and sued one another in 2012 for the patent. The lawsuit was settled out of court with undisclosed agreements in 2014. Mitek then entered agreements with thousands of banks to use its version of the mobile deposit capture technology.

In early 2017, USAA began to send letters to more than a thousand financial institutions using mobile check deposit capture – many of whom were Mitek customers – demanding licensing fees for the technology. In June of the following year, USAA filed two lawsuits against Wells Fargo, a Mitek customer, for patent infringement. It went on to sue PNC in December 2020 and Truist in August 2022.

The case outcomes have largely been favorable to USAA: In late 2019 and early 2020, Wells Fargo lost two cases to USAA and was found liable to pay $302 million. In 2022, a jury found PNC liable for $218 million.

"We have signed many license agreements and look forward to working with more banks and credit unions to create mutually beneficial license agreements," McKinley said in a statement. "We remain committed to improving our technology and to be reasonably compensated for the significant benefits our innovations have brought to the industry."