Compass Bank

Compass Bank (doing business as BBVA Compass) was the principal bank subsidiary of BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc. (formerly Compass Bancshares, Inc.), a U.S. financial holding company. The bank traces to 1964, when it was founded in Birmingham, Alabama, as Central Bank and Trust/Central Bank of the South. Headquartered in Birmingham (with a Houston corporate office), it grew through acquisitions across the Southeast and Southwest. Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) acquired Compass Bancshares in 2007 for roughly $9.6 billion; the franchise was rebranded BBVA Compass and then BBVA USA in June 2019. BBVA USA reported about $104 billion in assets and roughly 9,000–10,000 employees before PNC Financial Services Group agreed to buy it for ~$11.6 billion in November 2020. That deal closed June 1, 2021, and the branches were converted to the PNC Bank name in October 2021. Compass Bank therefore no longer exists as a separate institution; its operations are part of PNC Bank, N.A. (NYSE: PNC).

Operations. Compass Bank was an operating commercial bank, not a patent-holding entity. It offered consumer and business deposits, consumer and commercial lending, mortgage banking, treasury management, wealth management, and credit card services through several hundred branches in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. Brokerage and underwriting activities ran through BBVA Securities Inc. (BSI), a registered broker-dealer.

Litigation posture. The case data show one defendant-side and one plaintiff-side appearance — the profile of an operating company defending itself and then going on offense at the Patent Office rather than of a patent asserter. Compass Bank was sued by the non-practicing entity Intellectual Ventures II LLC in the Northern District of Alabama, then filed its own PTAB petitions against the same patents (the tracked "Compass Bank et al. v. Intellectual Ventures II LLC" matter).

Notable cases. Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc. et al., No. 2:13-cv-01106 (N.D. Ala., filed June 2013), accused Compass Bank's online banking security infrastructure of infringing five IV patents. Compass Bank, jointly with Commerce Bancshares and First National Bank of Omaha, filed inter partes reviews (including IPR2014-00724 and -00786, filed May 20, 2014) covering certificate management, packet filtering, and intrusion detection patents. The PTAB held the asserted claims unpatentable, and the district court case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice.