I'm not one to defend Apple much recently but even this one is a stretch! Did it take them a decade to figure it out?!
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Apple Pay at Center of New Trade Secret Lawsuit
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No statute of limitations? Suing after 13 years seems like a reach and ridiculous. I guess jack up how much they can try to win from the lawsuit.
New York-based law firm Kasowitz LLP today announced that it is filing a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of its client, Texas-based company Fintiv, over alleged theft of mobile wallet technology used to create Apple Pay.
In a press release, the law firm said the complaint accuses Apple of violating U.S. federal and state RICO and trade secret laws.
According to the press release, the complaint alleges that Apple approached Fintiv's predecessor CorFire between 2011 and 2012, and received confidential technical information under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Fintiv believed that Apple planned to license CorFire's mobile wallet technology, but said it instead stole the confidential information and later hired away key CorFire employees, before launching Apple Pay in 2014.
The lawsuit is being filed in a Northern Georgia district court.
"Apple's theft of Fintiv's technology is part of a pattern and practice that Apple has engaged in for years – falsely pretending to partner with companies in order to steal confidential and proprietary information under the guise of a working relationship, and thereafter hiring away key employees, all in order to steal the company's valuable intellectual property and use it to commercialize the business on its own," the complaint alleges.
The complaint cites Apple's "similar pernicious scheme" to steal trade secrets from Masimo to develop the Apple Watch's blood oxygen measuring feature.
MacRumors has yet to find the complaint in the U.S. court filing system, so these allegations and quotes are entirely relayed from the press release.
While this particular lawsuit in Georgia is new, Fintiv has been waging a legal battle against Apple since 2018, when it filed a patent infringement case against the company in Texas. That case was eventually dismissed, but an appeals court overturned the decision and remanded it to Texas for further proceedings. Earlier this week, a judge in Texas ruled that Apple did not infringe certain patents, and granted Fintiv's motion to dismiss the remaining claims. Now, the saga will shift to a Georgia court with the filing of this fresh lawsuit.
Article Link: Apple Pay at Center of New Trade Secret Lawsuit
I guess since non competes aren't enforceable in CA these companies have to find other ways to prevent poaching and if enough of these frivolous lawsuits are won companies will stop hiring competitors.
According to the article, they began litigation in 2018, 4 years after Applepay was introduced. Time statutes for civil litigation are typically 5-7 years, so that would be within time. The fact they have lost already in Texas won't help this new filing but as it is an ongoing dispute, it is within the bounds of legal process, as long as the initial filing is made within the time limitations.
and if they lose, they have an additional 48 attempts to go. Just throw them to the wall hoping something may stick.
Why would they jump from State to State if not to find a judge that would suit them when other judges did not, very sketchy behaviour
If there were a real violation, this lawsuit would have been filed over a decade ago when Apple launched Apple Pay. This has all the earmarks of trying to use vague NDA disclosures to claim idea theft. People not familiar with the inside baseball of cutthroat tech business don't realize just how shady and unethical many claims of infringement are. If you think this is a David vs. Goliath story, you don't understand how often IP law is strategically abused.
Do you have imformation to substantiate “possibly from a patent troll”? Let’s wait —on both sides— until the lawsuit is filed.
We could of course wait to see their proof, and Apple’s defense, before calling them nasty?
Part of these sorts of things is to discover if there even WAS theft by the partying suing, as they can’t know what Apple used or didn’t use. So they sue them and Apple proves they did or didn’t. It’s not like they can ask Apple to see the source code or implementation to look for similarities.
Really hope this doesn't lead to disabling Apple Pay like the blood oxygen app on the watch...
They did get their way,..are they not allowed to follow due legal process? Thank your court system, don't blame the company! Apple has also done this numerous times.
As much as corporations lobby to end consumer protections, you'd think these companies were earnest about creating value instead of just looking for handouts, subsidies, or trolling for imaginary damages.
Am I not allowed to call that behavior bizarre?
That case in Texas went on for 7 years...
Please read the article correctly before commenting.
This is a theft of trade secret not patent infringement.
As far as the article goes, it looks like Apple got CI under NDA and then poached key employees.
Whether that is true or even led to theft of trade secret remains to be seen.
Not really legal trouble. One cost of success is having scammers and frauds trying to take bites.