Fintech
Fintech company sues Samsung over contactless payment technology | Patents
iCashe claims Samsung’s “tap to pay” feature infringes seven of its patents | The complaint lists Samsung smartphones, watches and tablets as infringing devices.
Fintech company iCashe is suing SAMSUNG on the “tap to” functionality of its mobile and wearable devices, claiming infringement of seven patents related to contactless mobile payment technology.
The Portland-based company claimed that Samsung infringed on its patented innovations through the Samsung Pay feature, which allows users to “tap to pay” for items using their smartphone or smartwatch.
iCashe, a spin-off of the mobile banking platform Typhoonfiled a complaint with United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on June 6, claiming the following seven U.S. patents: 9,122,965; 9,483,722; 11,694,053; 8,403,219; 9,202,156; 9,208,423; and 11,270,174.
Patents allow for “more efficient” transactions.
The patents in question cover circuits and systems that enable high-performance communications between mobile devices and point-of-sale payment terminals and facilitate contactless mobile payments, among other applications.
iCashe told the court that its patents allow Samsung users to efficiently complete payment transactions at a variety of point-of-sale terminals and at greater distances and angles than would be possible without the technology.
Samsung had infringed its patents by selling devices that incorporated patented near-field communication (NFC) or time-varying magnetic field (TVMF) capabilities, iCashe said.
According to the complaint, these devices included but were not limited to the Galaxy Note smartphone, Galaxy Tab tablet, and Galaxy Watch Classic.
On its website, the Korean smartphone maker says Samsung Pay allows users to use their Galaxy devices “to make purchases with debit and credit cards virtually anywhere contactless is accepted. Just add cards to Samsung Wallet and tap to pay.”
Tyfone, iCashe’s predecessor, was founded in 2004 to create a secure payment platform via mobile phones, according to court filings.
The company has assigned some patents related to its contactless mobile payment technology to iCashe, which offers cashless payment infrastructure through a product called Purs.
In the Texas lawsuit, iCashe sought a ruling for willful infringement and monetary damages, including an order that Samsung pay ongoing royalties for any infringement that occurred after the ruling.
Lead Counsel Aaron Fahrenkrog from Robins Kaplan filed the complaint on behalf of iCashe, with a team of Logan Drew, Emily Tremblay, Jessica Gutierrez AND William Jones.
By representing iCashe he also acts as an attorney Andrea Fiera from Ward, Smith & Hill.