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BofA Patents A Way Of Denying Overdraft Fee Refunds
from the best-not-to-infringe-on-this-one dept
theodp writes "Q. How many Bank of America inventors does it take to screw a customer? A. Eight, according to U.S. Patent No. 7,797,212, which was awarded to BofA Tuesday for its Refund Request Tool, an "invention" that aims to put an end to "refund shopping" by pesky customers who "drive over to a different bank branch in the hope of finding a more sympathetic [bank] employee" to forgive their NSF/OD or other fees. From the patent: "For example, if a customer refuses a refund initially offered, the bank employee may process the refusal as the distribution of a $0.00 refund. Thus, for subsequent refund requests, the server 101 may treat the occurrence as having already having distributed a refund, and might not allow this refund to be decisioned again. Instead, the server 101 may simply transmit a message corresponding to the 'No Refund Available' to the bank employee at the second branch terminal 151, indicating that no refund, not even the previously-offered refund amount, should be offered to the customer.""
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All the power to them...
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Re: All the power to them...
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Wow...
If there was ever a poster-boy for killing software patents, this would be it.
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Re: Wow...
CBMHB
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Rival Banks, was Re.:
You should encourage your non-BoA bank, by specifically asking your bank manager about this. Then tell them that if they ever license the patent from BoA, you'll switch banks.
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What
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Re: What
That's two significant figures.
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What if...
Step 1: Apply for and get a ridiculously broad patent.
Step 2: Sue patent abusing companies.
Step 3: Profit (of course).
Step 4: Invest half the profit in applying for more ridiculous patents and the other half in lobbying Congress for patent reform which would eliminate ridiculous patents.
Rinse and repeat.
(BTW, I don't think it's wrong for BoA to try and prevent fraud, but what's ridiculous of course is this particular technique has been granted a patent. How funny would it be if some group sued BoA for infringement of a "nickle and dime your customer with lame service fees" patent?)
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Diversification
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Re: What if...
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How is this patentable?
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fail
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Well they Don't Have to Charge and Overdraft Fee!
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I guess I should have filed for a patent.
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Re:
If obviousness hadn't prevented this patent from being issued, prior art certainly should have.
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I should patent some of the logic code I write.
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Police State USA
"We took your money and you can all go FUCK YOURSELVES."
"Have a nice day."
Just another reason to look forward to the impending collapse. Thankfully all the money in the world can't save you from ramen fueled rage slamming a brick into a blue blooded face.
Save the nation; burn down a bank.
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Banksters vs Sheeple
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