Universal Secure Registry, a small Boston-based company founded by the inventor of corporate encryption technology RSA SecurID, Kenneth P. Weiss, is suing both Apple and Visa for patent infringement in the design of Apple Pay.
The suit alleges that Weiss received 13 patents for authentication systems that use a smartphone, biometric identification such as a fingerprint and the generation of secure one-time token to conduct financial transactions.
Weiss further claims this is not a case of accidental infringement — i.e. Apple and Visa were unaware of his patents’ existence — since the suit alleges that Weiss had several meetings in 2010 with Visa executives (including the firm’s CEO) about the possibility of collaborating in the future. Weiss says the two firms got as far as signing a 10-year nondisclosure agreement and assigning Visa engineers to fully understand the details before the communications ceased.
Weiss also notes that he wrote Apple about the possibility of licensing his security technology — though he never received a response.
Apple declined to comment on the suit. Visa did not respond to a request for comment.
Quinn Emanuel, which filed the Apple Pay suit on behalf of Universal Secure Registry, has some history suing Apple over patents. It was the attorney for Samsung Electronics in some of its long-running patent litigation with Apple.
And Apple will likely not go down without a fight in this issue, since its default stance of late has been aggression when it comes to other companies seeking royalties for key patents its products — a fact both Nokia and Qualcomm can attest to.
Mr. Weiss notes that his going goal is to invent payment technologies which he can license to larger companies. He remains hopeful that he, Apple and Visa can come to some kind of arrangement.
“My intention is still to get into a conference room with them and resolve this,” he said.
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