Western Union, the money transfer segment of global payments, has won a favourable jury verdict in a patent infringement lawsuit against MoneyGram Payment Systems in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Reportedly, the jury in the case returned a verdict in favour of Western Union and awarded damages totaling $16.53 million. The jury found that MoneyGram’s FormFree system infringes Western Union’s money transfer by phone patents.
The lawsuit, filed by Western Union against MoneyGram in May 2007, alleged that MoneyGram infringed Western Union patents for a system of staging money transfers through a call center and completing transactions at an agent location. An investigation by Western Union revealed that MoneyGram was essentially replicating Western Union’s patented Money Transfer by Phone service.
