Apple urges US District Court to dismiss Fintiv’s trade secret lawsuit over Apple Pay
The mobile payment service is used on millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBooks
iphone-maker Apple has urged a US District Court in Atlanta to dismiss a racketeering lawsuit by a company, Fintiv, accusing it of stealing technology to create the lucrative mobile wallet, Apple Pay.
The technology giant added that if the case was not dismissed, it should be transferred to Judge Alan Albright in Waco, Texas, who recently dismissed Fintiv’s related patent case.
However, Fintiv is appealing Albright’s 4 August dismissal of its patent case.
Based in Austin, Texas, Fintiv had accused Apple of misappropriating technology for Apple Pay that it had once sought to license from CorFire, a Georgia company that Fintiv bought in 2014.
(Apple Pay is used in millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and MacBooks.)
Fintiv added the racketeering arose from Apple’s use of Apple Pay to generate fees for credit card issuers, including Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, and the payment networks American Express, Mastercard and Visa.
However, Apple said Fintiv waited long to pursue most of its federal and state claims. It knew the underlying facts since 2014, and failed to show a pattern of racketeering.
The iPhone maker stated, “The court should reject Fintiv’s attempt to revive its failed patent case in a new district with no connection to the facts.” It added that alternatively, the matter be sent to the federal judge in Texas to promote efficiency, as he spent nearly seven years overseeing the underlying dispute and was familiar with the facts.
Judge Albright once oversaw nearly 25 percent of all US patent cases and was viewed as a favored judge for many plaintiffs suing large technology companies, including Apple. But that concentration ended in 2022, when new patent cases were passed on to other judges.