NEWSAccording to legal firm Bryan Cave LLP, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Bryan Cave's client Green Dot Corp. in a patent infringement lawsuit brought against the distributor by Every Penny Counts Inc.
In 2007, EPC sued Green Dot and codefendants American Express Co., Visa Inc and MasterCard Worldwide, claiming that five of EPC's patents had been violated, Bryan Cave said.
The patents reportedly involved an automated system for distributing excess cash from retail sales transactions to predetermined charitable or savings accounts. EPC wanted to expand the system to include prepaid card transactions.
The Las Vegas Sun reported that Visa sued several Web sites that had infringed on the card brand's trademarks. Visa's lawsuit reportedly said seven domain names had "Visa" incorporated in the names; the domain names were registered to companies in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Seattle and Antigua.
In the lawsuit, Visa claimed the companies were "cybersquatting" - setting up fake Web sites to capture or divert Internet users from Visa's actual Web site at www.visa.com. One of the false sites allegedly included a link to "prepaid Visa card," the news outlet said.
Another fake site was reportedly www.vissa.com"; when people mistakenly typed in the extra "s," they would be taken to the fraudulent site.
ANNOUNCEMENTSEntroPay rolled out a new payment method for online gambling, the EntroPay Virtual Card, which features instant payouts, cross-border capabilities and a flat $6 fee. The EntroPay card can be used at any online location that accepts Visa cards. The cards can also be used to move funds from users' Entropay accounts to personal bank accounts.
In its fourth year, Evolution Benefits Inc.'s Teacher Dollars Program rewards Hartford, Conn., teachers whose students have shown marked improvement in academic achievement. The teachers receive special-purpose debit cards that can be used for school supplies that would otherwise be coming out of the teachers' own pockets. Thirteen schools were selected to receive the cards this year.
Heartland Payments Systems Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert O. Carr will deliver a keynote address, Fighting Intrusion with Innovation, at the 17th Annual ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in October 2009. Carr's presentation will include a look at how system intrusions have affected the payments industry, followed by a discussion of data security and the future of payment technologies. The Forum will be held in Las Vegas, Oct. 18 to 20.
In other news, Heartland rolled out its ePIN It! program for prepaid calling card services. It offers wireless and long distance minutes - domestic and international - and includes over 110 offerings from most major wireless carriers. Merchants download the program to their POS terminals. Personal identification numbers are printed on POS receipts when customers purchase minutes, which they can use to access the minutes from their phones.
MoneyGram International expanded its operations in Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia and the Dominican Republic with almost 1,200 new agent locations, bringing the total number of locations in Latin America, including Mexico and the Caribbean, to 25,000.
International Data Group's CIO magazine recognized NetSpend Corp. as a 2009 CIO 100 honoree for its Financial Infrastructure Program. The award honors organizations worldwide for operational and strategic excellence in information technology.
Prepaid card provider One World Ventures Inc. expanded into countries and territories in the Asia Pacific region with the 1World Card program. Through an unnamed global partner, One World Ventures is now able to expand into Vietnam, a country whose per capita income has doubled in the past 10 years.
RC Strategies Group, a Seattle-based digital promotions and e-marketing firm, released its Digital Promo Pack to help prepaid providers boost sales. The suite offers gift-with-purchase promotions of digital entertainment. Ingrid Ricks, Principal of RC Strategies Group, said digital promotions are a perfect fit for the prepaid distribution model "because they are delivered through a promo code and URL."
Cincinnati-based UniRush LLC's Prepaid Visa RushCard rewards programs continue to be well-received according to UniRush's customer satisfaction survey. The programs reward merchants' existing customers with discounts.
VIPGift is set to release CLAIM (Customer Loyalty and Incentive Management) 2.0, its points-based loyalty solution, in Fall 2009. CLAIM is an incentive program with customizable earning and redemption tiers. Messages can be targeted based on multiple factors.
White Eagle PLC now provides the MasterCard-branded Freedom Eagle Cash Card to students at Wellington College, a private British school founded by Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister The Earl of Derby in 1859. White Eagle's Freedom4Schools Program is designed to foster financial literacy and cut administrative costs.
PARTNERSHIPSAffinity Plus Federal Credit Union of St. Paul, Minn., and Builders Commonwealth partnered to support ABC-TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Needing a secure Web site to accept donations for the renovation of a home in Douglas County, Wisc., the two turned to prepaid card provider PSCU Financial Services. PSCU had the donation site up in less than 48 hours.
Amplex Corp., a U.S. distributor of serialized prepaid products and government issued stamps, will now provide nationwide packaging and shipping services for ExaDigm Inc. products. On Aug. 1, 2009, ExaDigm's full product line became available for purchase through Amplex.
MoneyGram and mobile gateway provider Affinity Global Services teamed up to expand money transfer services globally. Anthony Ryan, President and CEO for MoneyGram, said the alliance "will significantly enhance our agent network by allowing us to partner with mobile network operators in key corridors such as Latin America, Asia and Africa."
MoneyGram will also be providing money transfer services for Samsara Private Ltd.'s 200 partner locations, which are mostly banks in urban and rural areas of Nepal. "Samsara is a trusted brand in remittance services in Nepal, and we're pleased to combine its expertise with MoneyGram's global network," said Harsh Lambah, MoneyGram's Regional Director for South Asia.
Precidia Technologies Inc.'s TransNet payment engine was certified by TenderCard for gift card transactions, allowing TransNet merchants to route gift card transactions to TenderCard's secure socket layer host. The TransNet payment engine, housed on a hardware platform, can route transactions directly to multiple Internet Protocol addresses without a gateway and the associated costs.
Preferred Health Technology Inc., with its A-Claim medical payment solution, endorsed the Medical Group Management Association's Project SwipeIT, which encourages government and private insurance plans to issue standardized mag stripe member identification cards to reduce human errors and expense.
The Washington Urban League and ACE Cash Express Inc. jointly sponsored a summer camp program in which young campers learn about personal financial management. By providing classes at the Urban League camp, ACE fulfills one of its corporate objectives: educating youth about the importance of financial literacy.
ACQUISITIONSPrepaid provider Mint Technology Corp. completed its due diligence for the acquisition of Waseela Equity LLC in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mint further stated that the transaction has no material changes since its declaration of July 30, 2009. The deal, which is expected to close Aug. 31, 2009, includes the purchase of Standard Chartered Bank EMEA, which signed an agreement with Waseela Equity to handle payroll card customers.
APPOINTMENTSJames "Jim" Grabow joined FSV Payments Systems Inc. as its new Chief Retail Partners Executive. In this role, he will lead the development and delivery of prepaid card programs for FSV's financial services partners. Grabow, formerly Senior Director of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Card Products division, is also involved with the Center for Financial Services Innovation and a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
The Western Union Co. welcomed Wulf von Schim-melmann to its board of directors. His involvement will include seats on the corporate governance and compensation and benefits committees.
Von Schimmelmann adds this to his list of posts: Chair of Supervisory Board of Deutsche Postbank AG; member, Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG; Director of Accenture Ltd.; member, Supervisory Board of Maxingvest AG; and Chair of the Supervisory Board of BAWAG P.S.K., an Austrian bank.
MoneyGram appointed Jeffrey R. Woods to the seats of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Woods comes to MoneyGram from his post as CFO for Global Investment Banking and Chief Operating Officer for Investment Banking, Americas at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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