Apple Pay at Center of New Trade Secret Lawsuit

New York-based law firm Kasowitz LLP today announced that it is filing a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of its client, Texas-based company Fintiv, over alleged theft of mobile wallet technology used to create Apple Pay.

In a press release, the law firm said the complaint accuses Apple of violating U.S. federal and state RICO and trade secret laws.

According to the press release, the complaint alleges that Apple approached Fintiv's predecessor CorFire between 2011 and 2012, and received confidential technical information under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Fintiv believed that Apple planned to license CorFire's mobile wallet technology, but said it instead stole the confidential information and later hired away key CorFire employees, before launching Apple Pay in 2014.

The lawsuit is being filed in a Northern Georgia district court.

"Apple's theft of Fintiv's technology is part of a pattern and practice that Apple has engaged in for years – falsely pretending to partner with companies in order to steal confidential and proprietary information under the guise of a working relationship, and thereafter hiring away key employees, all in order to steal the company's valuable intellectual property and use it to commercialize the business on its own," the complaint alleges.

The complaint cites Apple's "similar pernicious scheme" to steal trade secrets from Masimo to develop the Apple Watch's blood oxygen measuring feature.

MacRumors has yet to find the complaint in the U.S. court filing system, so these allegations and quotes are entirely relayed from the press release.

While this particular lawsuit in Georgia is new, Fintiv has been waging a legal battle against Apple since 2018, when it filed a patent infringement case against the company in Texas. That case was eventually dismissed, but an appeals court overturned the decision and remanded it to Texas for further proceedings. Earlier this week, a judge in Texas ruled that Apple did not infringe certain patents, and granted Fintiv's motion to dismiss the remaining claims. Now, the saga will shift to a Georgia court with the filing of this fresh lawsuit.