Apple has been sued by Texas company Fintiv, who describe themselves as a “new company created by experienced hands.” They are claiming Apple Pay infringes upon an acquired Korean patent that Fintiv owns.
Though touting “over 20 years experience”, Fintiv was founded in 2018 and employs somewhere between 11-50 staff members in the mobile payments and marketing industry.
Specifically, the patent covers storing and using digital wallet data on a mobile device with regards to billing agreements or online purchases. From the full lawsuit, uploaded to scribd via Patently Apple:
[The Patent] relates to management of virtual cards stored on mobile devices and discloses provisioning a contactless card in a mobile device with a mobile wallet application
…
Apple, without authorization or license from Fintiv, has been and is presently directly infringing at least claim 11, 18, and 23 of [the Patent], as infringement is defined by 35 U.S.C. § 271(a), including through making, using (including for testing purposes), selling, offering for sale, and/or importing infringing products. Apple is thusliable for direct infringement of [the Patent].
Exemplary infringing products include Apple iPhone devices (including, at least, iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus,SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, XR, XS, XS Max), Apple Watch devices (including, at least, Series 1,Series 2, Series 3, and Series 4), and the Apple Wallet Application (collectively, “the Apple Devices”)
Fintiv’s website is unsurprisingly paper thin, offering up lots of corporate stock imagery paired with hyper-marketing speak. While the company lists a prominent “products” header at the top of their site, it only leads you to more Fintiv company overview and a web portal to contact them.
Of course, this is far from the first time Apple has been sued by a patent troll. In July, Apple was sued for allegedly infringing on a company’s patents because of Siri’s natural speech recognition.
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