Posts Tagged: "JPMorgan Chase"

Tech Giants Lead the Way on Fintech Patents, Ahead of Banks

British patent data insights firm Cipher recently released an IP strategy report that provides a look at how many firms are patenting technologies in the hopes of disrupting various industry sectors. Among the various highlights of the report include a look at fintech patents, which shows that tech companies and not banks are leading the way in obtaining patents that cover the future of banking.

Banks playing patent catch-up with tech companies on digital wallets, payment platforms

Mobile payment schemes and digital wallets have been a major topic of discussion in tech circles this year. In early December, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) became the first American retailer to announce its own mobile payment system that will be rolled out next year. Even in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice, we have seen an interesting increase in the amount of patent filing activity for mobile payment systems from each of the three largest banks as valued by assets. This is a peculiar about-face from a sector that, until tech companies started encroaching on financial services, had rallied against strong patent rights for software for quite some time.

Banks struggle to keep up as cybersecurity risks increase

Regulations will likely start rolling out in the coming year starting at the state level. In May of last year, for example, the New York State Department of Financial Services released a report which said that the agency would add cybersecurity measures to the list of items that it investigates when evaluating a bank’s overall safety and soundness. New York, and New York City in particular, is home to a huge banking industry that represents some of our nation’s largest financial institutions, including American Express, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. According to remarks made by NYS DFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky in late February, state regulations could involve the use of multi-layer authentication systems for firms regulated by the DFS.

I Thought Banks Didn’t Like Financial Software Patents?

The big banks have backed Schumer for years, which makes sense since he is the senior Senator from the States of New York, which is where all the bankers are located (i.e., on Wall Street). But given all the vitriol aimed at software patents, particularly those in the financial services sector, there is a real irony that big banks are able to get software patents that explicitly cover computer implemented methods in the wake of Alice v. CLS Bank when so many others aren’t. So much of this anti-software patent hysteria was started by the big banks but they seem unaffected. That is an unfortunate theme in America. The big banks on Wall Street destroyed the economy with reckless disregard and yet not a single person went to jail and big bonuses continued to be paid to the very bankers and executives responsible for the economic meltdown that lead to the Great Recession.

JPMorgan Chase Software Patent Portfolio Grows Larger

What really caught our attention were the patent claims JPMorgan Chase recently obtained. Many of the claims cover computer implemented processes, while many are clearly drawn to software innovations even if they don’t specifically define computer implemented processes in the preamble of the claims. It would seem that like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase is not suffering through Alice rejections that so many others experience.