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Protecting his pennies

An inventor says Bank of America stole his idea for its Keep the Change savings program.

By Helen Huntley, Times Staff Writer
Published April 14, 2007

Bank of America's Keep the Change program is a hit with customers, but not with a Cape Coral inventor, who says the banking giant stole his idea.

If customers sign up for Keep the Change, whenever they use their Bank of America Visa check cards, the bank rounds up the purchase price and transfers the extra money to savings. For example, if they make a $3.43 purchase, their checking account is charged $4, and the additional 57 cents is added to their savings account.

To make the deal sweeter, the bank matches savings dollar for dollar for the first three months and 5 cents on the dollar after that, for up to $250 per year.

"Customers love it," said Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton. "It's helped 4.3-million account holders save $400-million."

Florida's Bertram Burke does not love it. He says he invented, and his company, Every Penny Counts, patented, a process for diverting money to savings by rounding up the cost of purchases. The company is suing Bank of America and Visa for damages in federal court in Fort Myers.

Every Penny Counts' patent, dubbed the "Rounder," outlines a system for rounding up purchases at any point-of-sale terminal, using multiple payment methods, and includes the option of donating the extra pennies to charity.

Every Penny Counts says it first described its patent to Bank of America and Visa in 2001 and had discussions with the companies in 2004 and 2005 about a licensing agreement.

Bank of America stopped talking two years ago, apparently deciding to "establish its own program modeled on the Rounder Patent, but without compensation to EPC," the company's lawsuit says.

The bank says the allegations are without merit.

"Bank of America has a pending patent application related to the Keep the Change program that reflects innovations created by the bank, and we intend to vigorously defend our Keep the Change program," Norton said.

Every Penny Counts is in the business of licensing patented products to banks, card associations, merchants and nonprofits. It says it created and patented the first gift card, prepaid card, travel card, merchandise card and electronic Christmas club account.

Helen Huntley can be reached at hhuntley@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8230.

[Last modified April 13, 2007, 22:57:21]