USAA Sues Fifth Third in Mobile Deposit Patent Fight

Mobile remote deposit capture lets customers deposit checks by photographing them with a smartphone, turning what once required a branch visit or specialized scanner into a standard banking-app service. United Services Automobile Association, or USAA, introduced Deposit@Mobile in 2009 and has spent roughly nine years enforcing patents covering automated image capture and validation. Its campaign has produced verdicts, settlements and licensing deals, making the dispute a test of how far software patents can reach into widely adopted financial technology.

USAA sued Fifth Third Bancorp, Fifth Third Financial Corporation and Fifth Third Bank in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on July 21, 2026, alleging infringement of four mobile-deposit patents; the complaint did not specify damages. USAA previously won a $200 million verdict against Wells Fargo. Its record is mixed: on May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive $222.9 million in PNC Bank verdicts invalidated as covering abstract ideas. Fifth Third could likewise challenge eligibility or prior art, or seek support from its technology vendor.