Fintiv sues Apple for alleged technology theft with Apple Pay
Fintech firm Fintiv accuses Apple of misconduct. The lawsuit echoes the Masimo case, which led to an import ban on certain Apple Watch models.
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First there are talks about a possible partnership and the exchange of initial business secrets. Then the interested party suddenly does its own thing – presumably on the basis of what it has previously learned in the talks. This is not the proverbial fine English way, but what makes the lawsuit filed by the US company Fintiv from the state of Texas so interesting is who it is directed against. None other than iPhone manufacturer Apple is accusing Fintiv of stealing information in this way in order to launch the Apple Pay payment service. And Fintiv is even accusing Apple of organized crime, as well-known banks and payment service providers are also involved.
Fintiv, a global provider of digital wallet systems, has now filed a lawsuit against Apple in a federal court in the USA. The allegations against Apple date back to 2011 and 2012. At that time, Apple had signed confidentiality agreements when the iPhone manufacturer was negotiating a partnership with CorFire, a company later acquired by Fintiv. Apple Pay was then launched in 2014. Fintiv explained in a press release that Apple had also poached key employees for this purpose.
Case is reminiscent of other disputes
Specifically, the case concerns technical details about Secure Element and NFC technology. Trade secrets about the Trusted Service Management Platform are also affected. Fintiv argues that the company has lost annual revenues in the tens of billions as a result.
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The case is reminiscent of another legal dispute between the US company Masimo and Apple. It concerns the technology for blood oxygen measurements in the Apple Watch. Masimo was able to ensure that Apple had to switch off the technology in the USA, as otherwise it would have faced an import ban. Fintiv suspects a pattern behind this. In addition to the two companies, the company Valencell, which developed technology for heart rate monitoring, was also affected. On the other hand, Apple has repeatedly had to deal with lawsuits in the past in which companies wanted to sell off patents they had bought up.
Apple has not yet commented on the allegations.
(mki)
