Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Local banking concept is a patented success

Bert Caldwell The Spokesman-Review

Step into the Washington Mutual Bank branch inside the Fred Meyer store at Third and Thor. Welcome to Patent No. 6,681,985.

You may be disoriented. The free-form space has no teller cage. You will not see a tie, let alone a suit. A concierge may approach to ask about your banking needs.

According to the description filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, “The components of the branch bank create a welcoming and inviting environment for a customer because of the open nature of the design, which is in sharp contrast to more traditional branch banks.”

So sharp, in fact, the office earlier this year granted Washington Mutual the first-ever patent describing a full-service bank branch. Several more related to the format are pending, and its name, “Occasio,” has already been trademarked.

Spokeswoman Mary Kelley says Washington Mutual is taking several steps to protect the innovations made in branch banking. She withholds specifics.

“We don’t want to tip our hands,” Kelley says.

But that ace already shows. The patent confirms recognition from the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which earlier this year placed the Occasio “stores” among its Top 40 concepts. Fortune magazine in February rated Washington Mutual the most innovative company on its Most Admired Companies list, and there have been other awards as well.

And there’s method to the motif. As the Patent Office description makes clear, Occasio is about security, sales and community, not just quirky layout. The simple patent title is “System for providing enhanced management, as in branch banking.”

Tellers, for example, do not handle much cash. Any they receive from a customer is pushed down into a cash box hidden inside the free-standing teller towers. Cash is dispensed by machine.

“Because bank employees do not have cash drawers, employee happiness, productive loss prevention and branch bank security are approved,” says the description. Employee happiness may be a stretch, but frustration among potential robbers makes sense. Even the eye-to-eye contact with the concierge is intended in part to deter theft.

Community relations, including community hiring, are also integral to Occasio. Business activity certainly suggests success there. The branch, which opened in August 2001, ranks second among the 16 Washington Mutual branches from Colville south to Pullman in the number of new accounts opened.

Occasio has played well elsewhere, too. Of the bank’s 1,800 branches from New York to Florida to California to Washington, 850 fit the mold.

All this is very cool, but why a patent?

Gonzaga University School of Law professor Sheri Engelken says financial institutions have besieged the Patent Office since a 1998 court ruling upholding a patent on a particular platform for tracking currency fluctuations.

“It sort of blew open the doors,” she says. Between 1995 and 2002, business-method patent applications sought by banks, brokerages and the like multiplied 15-fold.

“I don’t see any sign it’s going to slow down,” says Engelken, who litigated intellectual property cases for 19 years before joining the Gonzaga law faculty.

Engelken says executives see opportunities in licensing, or threats by other institutions that may stake out ideas and secure patents. Nor, she adds, is a patented store concept unusual. Proprietors have patented layouts, product configurations, even the displays at the ends of supermarket aisles.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that nothing in the law limits what can be patented.

Kelley says other banks have tinkered with Occasio-like branches, but so far have not attempted to introduce their versions across their branch systems. Nor has anyone approached Washington Mutual about licensing the concept, she says.

If there are indications someone is infringing on the Occasio patent, she says, the bank would weigh its options carefully before suing.

Occasio, by the way, is a translation from Latin meaning “favorable opportunity.” It should be Washington Mutual’s motto. In its first 100 years, the bank grew to all of $6.7 billion in assets at 82 Northwest branches and loan centers. Since that 1989 centennial, the bank has become a giant, with $281 billion in assets accumulated during a series of acquisitions.

Washington Mutual knows an occasio when it sees one.