Apple sued over Apple ID verification system

Another day, another lawsuit. A Nevada-base company called Verify Smart Corp. is suing Apple for — wait it for it — patent infringement. The company alleges that Apple’s 2-step Apple ID verification system/process violates their patent, reports Patently Apple.

Verify claims Apple makes, uses, tests, markets and sells or otherwise provides a system and method for enabling a user to authenticate their identity when initiating an electronic transaction, using a one-time pass-code sent to the user’s mobile phone. The company also alleges that Apple’s two-step verification system is designed to enable secure transactions for their customers and infringes on their patent (number 8,285,648) for a “system and method for verifying a user’s identify in electronic transactions.”

If I’m counting correctly, this is the seventh lawsuit (two involving Shanda Games) filed against Apple this year. A new class action lawsuit in July accused Apple of breaching contract by failing to provide new — or “equivalent to new” — devices when offering up replacement hardware under AppleCare+ warranties.

The case was entered July 18 via the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, on behalf of Joanne McRight, a woman whose father bought her an iPhone 5 with AppleCare+ from an Apple Store in Friendswood, Texas in December 2012. Her screen later broke, and in September 2013 McRight paid AppleCare+’s (then) US$49 accidental damage fee to secure a replacement. 

The new device’s screen also broke, leading to her paying another $49 in May 2014. Lawyers for McRight said that neither of the devices were new or “equivalent to new in both performance and reliability,” as promised in the official terms for AppleCare+. McRight argues that refurbished devices — something Apple frequently offers up in place of broken units — don’t qualify.

Probendi, an Irish software development studio, has filed an urgent procedure with a court in Milan protesting Apple’s use of the term “iWatch” in its ads

Earlier this month (July) Apple was sued by Shanghai Shulong Computer Technology (the parent company of Shanda Games) for alleged copyright infringement of The King Of Adventure, a mobile game sold in the Apple App Store. In June Shanda Games sued Apple, Huawei, C1wan.com and Beijing Zhuoyi Xunchuang Technology for unfair competition.

Comarco Wireless Technologies is suing Apple for patent infringement, claiming that the Cupertino, California-based company’s iPhone/iPad chargers infringe on its own patents. And battery manufacturerA123 Systems is suing the Cupertino, California-based company for “poaching employees.”