Apple is facing a new legal challenge from Texas-based company Fintiv, which has filed a lawsuit in a Northern Georgia district court accusing the tech giant of trade secret theft related to its Apple Pay product.
The complaint, announced by New York-based law firm Kasowitz LLP, alleges that Apple violated U.S. federal and state trade secret and RICO laws. According to the filing, Apple approached Fintiv’s predecessor CorFire between 2011 and 2012, obtained technical information under non-disclosure agreements, and later used that information without permission.
Fintiv claims that Apple initially showed interest in licensing CorFire’s mobile wallet technology but instead used the confidential information to develop Apple Pay, which launched in 2014. The company also alleges Apple hired several key CorFire employees during that period.
The complaint accuses Apple of a pattern of engaging with smaller firms under the pretext of partnership, acquiring confidential data, and then replicating the technology independently. It also refers to a separate case involving Apple and Masimo, claiming a similar approach was used in developing the Apple Watch's blood oxygen feature.
This isn’t the first time Fintiv has taken legal action against Apple. The two companies have been in dispute since 2018, when Fintiv filed a patent infringement suit in Texas. While that case was dismissed initially, it was later revived by an appeals court. A judge in Texas recently ruled that Apple did not infringe certain patents and dismissed the rest of the claims. The new lawsuit in Georgia signals a continuation of the legal battle through a different legal route.
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