On Wednesday, plaintiff Caselas LLC filed a complaint in the Western District of Texas against defendant Volusion LLC, an e-commerce software company, alleging that the defendant infringed its patents via various features on its e-commerce software platform regarding electronic payments.
The patents-in-suit are U.S. patents 7,529,698 (the ’698 patent”); 7,661,585 (the ’585 patent); 9,117,206 (the ’206 patent); 9,117,230 (the ’230 patent); and 9,715,691 (the ’691 patent). According to the complaint, the ’698 patent generally relates to methods that include “receiving information regarding a transaction involving an account … processing the information regarding the transaction with a processing device using information regarding the account, generating a report or a message in response to the processing of the information regarding the transaction … and transmitting the information report to a communication device associated with a merchant, vendor, or provider of a good, product, or service.”
The plaintiff stated that Volusion “makes, sells, advertises, offers for sale, uses, or otherwise provides electronic payment processing services and/or merchant account services.” Accordingly, these services allegedly “comprise a nationwide network of servers, hardware, software (including software-as-a-service, or SaaS), and a collection of related and/or linked web pages and electronic communications interfaces and channels for performing electronic payment processing and authorization.” The plaintiff claimed that “the Volusion system comprises an apparatus with multiple interconnected infrastructures that infringe the Asserted Patents.” These allegedly include: “receivers, processing devices, and transmitters which collectively operate to interact with merchants, payment getaways, and card networks to process and authorize (or decline) electronic payment transactions.” The accused instrumentalities include Volusion Payments and its Fraud Score, which are features and functionality on its e-commerce software platform. Consequently, the plaintiff contended that the defendant’s accused instrumentalities utilized the claimed technology, features, and functionality.
According to the complaint, Volusion infringed at least claim 20 of the ’698 patent via the accused instrumentalities because they purportedly “comprise an apparatus for providing electronic payment processing services.” For instance, the accused instrumentalities “are configured such that information regarding specific individual transactions … is delivered (via, for example, the Internet…) to the apparatus of the Accused Instrumentalities.” Additionally, the accused instrumentalities’ hardware, software, including SaaS, “is configured to execute certain fraud prevention measures employed by Volusion,” among other transactions and message-related items. The allegations for the remaining patents-in-suit are similar to the allegations for the ’698 patent.
The plaintiff has sought declaratory judgment in its favor; an award for damages, costs, and fees; a permanent injunction; an award for royalties; and other relief. Caselas is represented by Garteiser Honea PLLC.