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Inventor-backed OnePass Data Technology LLC has filed its first litigation, suing AT&T (AT&T Mobility) (1:25-cv-01111) and Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (1:25-cv-01112) in separate District of Delaware complaints. The Ohio plaintiff describes the patents as directed to "cleaning data records, which provide significant improvements and advantages over conventional data cleansing technology". Targeted in the new cases are systems and methods "for processing customer mailing address records pursuant to the [US Postal Service] Cycle N or Cycle O CASS requirements".
The asserted patents (7,376,680; 8,682,866) comprise a family of two with respective issue dates in May 2008 and March 2014, sharing an earliest estimated priority date in April 2003, based on the filing of a provisional application. They name as their inventors Charles L. Kettler and John A. McDill, the founders of OnePass. These cases appear to mark their debut in litigation.
OnePass Data Technology was formed in Ohio in July 2021, with McDill identified as its managing member. Kettler and McDill appear to have been executives with OnePass Software, an entity created in West Virginia in 2002 that once offered "The Hygiene Suite"—an "integrated system of software and reference files" that purportedly allowed users to "realize the potential in every piece of direct mail you send". In 2014, the pair assigned this family to OnePass Data Solutions LLC, a Maryland entity for which McDill signed, as a member, which then moved the family, in February 2022, to the plaintiff. In that agreement, Karl M. Maersch signed for OnePass Data Technology as a member.
On social media, Maersch identifies himself as having been a senior vice president with Hilco Global since June 2022, as the "Head of Patent Advisory and Monetization practice" for Hilco Streambank, the financial services conglomerate's IP advisory arm. Per that online bio, "Hilco Streambank helps companies make strategic decisions about patents and intellectual property and provides strategy, monetization, valuation, mining, landscaping, white space, value chain, licensing and divestiture advisory services".
During the time of the OnePass transfer, Maersch indicates that he was CEO of West Four IP Consulting Group (from January 2015 to June 2022), "a boutique advisory firm that provides intellectual property strategy advice, patent monetization and patent & technology licensing services". West Four IP's services apparently included "portfolio development, patent landscaping, patent mining and analysis, evidence of use generation, M&A due diligence, intellectual property valuation, litigation management, licensing, patent sales, trade secret audits and monetization, and patent & technology licensing". Prior to that, from January 2015 to January 2016, Maersch reports having been "Vice President and Deputy General Counsel" with Allied Security Trust.
A security interest in the patents asserted here has been recorded with the USPTO, in favor of PLF 2025-A LP, an entity formed in Delaware on June 12, 2025. It is one of six entities to grant the same recipient a security interest in their patent holdings at the same time. RPX covered this activity at "Same Delaware Entity Now Holds Security Interests in Six Patent Portfolios" (August 2025). Three of the six grantors have now filed suit.
Leichtman Law PLLC and Wilks Law LLC filed the complaints for OnePass. They have yet to be assigned to a judge. 9/5, District of Delaware.
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