Apple and Visa are finding themselves embroiled in a fresh controversy. A Boston based company called the Universal Secure Registry is now claiming that the companies have infringed four of its patents with their Apple Pay service. The company has even filed a lawsuit against the two corporations in Wilmington, Delaware.
In its lawsuit, the company claims that it had sent Apple a bunch of letters seeking a partnership and describing the technology developed by it. Apparently, those letters also included details regarding a patent that sought to use biometrics as a means of validating identity. And, the company claims that it had also sought a partnership with Visa at around the same time. However, none of the partnerships worked out and as we know, Apple and Visa collaborated a few years later to create Apple Pay.
So the question now is this, did Apple and Visa collaborate together using the technology they obtained from USR? Seems unlikely but hey, stranger things have happened.
USR also claims that on introducing the service to the public in 2014, Apple
touted the same benefits that USR had introduced to Apple and Visa in 2010.
The company’s lawyers also said that:
Just as USR disclosed to Apple and Visa that its patented technology eliminated the need to store or transmit payment-card account numbers, Apple bragged to its users that with Apple Pay ‘the credit card isn’t stored on the device.
Well, one could argue that those are the biggest benefits o the service, s Apple would have “bragged” about the same whether or not it came upon the technology with USR’s help or without it. Meanwhile, the Boston based company now wants a cash compensation along with a court order that prevents further unauthorized use of its product.
The case is now in the courts and we will keep you updated with how it goes.
