A Delaware federal judge has reversed the recommendation of a magistrate judge and tossed a lawsuit alleging Apple and Visa’s “Apple Pay” contactless payment system infringes four security patents, finding that the patents-in-suit cover an abstract idea and are invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, reports Law360 (a subscription is required to read the entire article).
Universal Secure Registry (USR), a small US company, sued Apple and Visa in May 2017 for patent infringement. USR said it sent Apple a series of letters in 2010 describing its patented technology and seeking a partnership long before Apple Pay’s debut. Kenneth P. Weiss, chief executive of USR, also pursued a partnership with Visa around the same time, engaging “in a series of confidential discussions with senior representatives,” according to the filing. Both Apple and Visa shunned USR’s offers in favor of a partnership with each other to incorporate the technology into Apple Pay, according to Mobile Payment World.
According to the complaint, when Apple publicly announced its Apple Pay service in September 2014, the company “touted the same benefits that USR had introduced to Apple and Visa in 2010.”
