It appears that the lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Miami last month by a company called Default Proof Credit Card Systems, which is run from the chief executive's home and generated no revenue last year.
Default Proof claims to be the only company holding a patent covering pre-paid debit cards and accuses the corporations named in the lawsuit of violating US intellectual property laws by dispensing such cards without paying licence fees.
Pre-paid debit cards are not connected to bank accounts and are widely used by retailers, allowing customers to use and recharge them at any store of the same company. Default Proof reportedly claims that in 2002 alone, these cards accounted for 22 billion transactions in the US.
The dispute arose in June 2002, when the US Patent and Trade Mark Office granted Default Proof a patent covering "a system for dispensing pre-paid debit cards through computerised point-of-sale terminals."
According to the filing (US patent number 6,405,182), the system comprises "a point-of-sale assembly", "[the] means for dispensing at least one debit card for each transaction", and "a remotely located computerised clearing house assembly." Default Proof's chief executive, Vincent Cuervo, is listed as the inventor of the system.
After Default Proof was awarded the patent, it approached several major corporations to demand licence fees, Law.com reports. When no-one agreed to pay, the company decided to take legal action.
Default Proof is apparently seeking "adequate" compensation for the alleged infringement, as well as a permanent court order preventing infringement in the future. The lawsuit reportedly demands that a licence fee be paid to the company for each transaction where such pre-paid debit cards are used.
The text of Default Proof's patent in question is available here