Fintech firm sues Samsung over contactless payment tech | Patents
iCashe says Samsung ‘tap to pay’ feature infringes seven of its patents | Complaint lists Samsung smartphones, watches and tablets as infringing devices.
Fintech company iCashe has sued Samsung over the ‘tap to’ functionality in its mobile and wearable devices, alleging infringement of seven patents covering contactless mobile payment technology.
The Portland-based firm said Samsung had infringed its patented innovations through its Samsung Pay feature, which enables users to ‘tap to pay’ for items using their smartphone or smartwatch.
iCashe, a spinoff of mobile banking platform Tyfone, filed its complaint at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on June 6, asserting the following seven US patents: 9,122,965; 9,483,722; 11,694,053; 8,403,219; 9,202,156; 9,208,423; and 11,270,174.
Patents enable ‘more efficient’ transactions
The patents-in-suit relate to circuits and systems that enable high-performance communications between mobile devices and point-of-sale payment terminals and facilitate mobile contactless payments, among other applications.
iCashe told the court that its patents enabled 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) functionality, iCashe said.
These devices included but were not limited to the Galaxy Note smartphone, Galaxy Tab tablet and Galaxy Watch Classic, according to the complaint.
On its website, the Korean smartphone manufacturer says that Samsung Pay allows users to use their Galaxy devices “to shop with your debit and credit cards virtually anywhere contactless is accepted. Just add the cards to Samsung Wallet and tap to pay.”
Tyfone, the predecessor of iCashe, was founded in 2004 to create a secure payment platform using mobile phones, according to the court filing.
The company assigned certain patents related to its mobile contactless payment technology to iCashe, which offers cashless payment infrastructure through a product called Purs.
In the Texas lawsuit, iCashe asked for a judgment of wilful infringement and monetary relief including an order that Samsung pay ongoing royalties for any infringement occurring after the judgment.
Lead attorney 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.
Also representing iCashe is of counsel Andrea Fair from Ward, Smith & Hill.
