Texas company accuses Apple of stealing trade secrets to create Apple Pay
Apple was sued by Texas-based company Fintiv, which accused the iPhone maker of stealing its technology to create Apple Pay.
Apple was sued by Texas-based company Fintiv, which accused the iPhone maker of stealing its technology to create Apple Pay.
Fintiv said that key features of Apple Pay are based on technology developed by CorFire, which Fintiv acquired in 2014, and which is now used in hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and MacBooks, Reuters writes .
The Texas-based company claims that Apple held several meetings and entered into non-disclosure agreements with CorFire in 2011 and 2012. Apple sought to license CorFire's mobile wallet technology to meet the growing demand for contactless payments.
Instead, with the help of lured CorFire employees, Apple used the technology and trade secrets to launch Apple Pay in the US and other countries starting in 2014.
Fintiv also said that Apple created an informal racketeering scheme using Apple Pay to collect fees for credit card issuers such as Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, as well as payment networks American Express, Mastercard and Visa.
“This is a case of corporate theft and racketeering of monumental proportions” that allowed Apple to generate billions of dollars in revenue without paying Fintiv “a single penny,” the lawsuit says.
In an official statement, Fintiv attorney Marc Kasowitz called Apple's behavior "one of the most egregious examples of corporate abuse" he has seen in 45 years of legal practice.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Atlanta, seeks actual and punitive damages for violations of federal and Georgia trade secret and anti-racketeering laws, including RICO.
Court documents show that a federal judge in Austin dismissed Fintiv’s patent infringement lawsuit against Apple on Aug. 4. This comes four days after the judge dismissed some of Fintiv’s claims. The company agreed to the dismissal, but plans to “appeal based on the evidence available.”
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