AnywhereCommerce Inc. a pioneer in the mPOS (mobile payments point of sale) industry announced today that it has filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Square Inc. (SQ), a company which provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally.
The lawsuit, filed in the California federal court (case number 3:19-cv-04311) on July 26, 2019, asserts the unauthorized use of patented technologies, which is prohibited by law, and is intended to protect AnywhereCommerce’s significant investment in its innovative mPOS technology which is regarded and recognized as the de facto patent family relating to a variety of payment card reading apparatuses tethered to a smartphone or tablet.
Seeking monetary damages, AnywhereCommerce asked the court to stop Square from infringing its patents and urged the court to find Square’s infringement “willful, wanton, and deliberate,” and to award AnywhereCommerce treble damages.
The complaint asserts that Square has knowingly infringed these patents for years despite previously acknowledging the priority of these patents in various filings before the United States Patent Office and continues to willfully infringe these patents today. Among the patents at issue is U.S. Patent No. 8,281,998, issued on October 9, 2012, which is ironically cited as prior art in a patent later issued to Square founder Jack Dorsey.
Per Oliver Griffin, lead counsel for Kutak Rock representing AnywhereCommerce, “Square simply took that same technology for itself, becoming one of the largest and most famous companies in the world by falsely holding itself out as the originator of technology allowing the use of smartphones and tablets to accept credit card payments.”
AnywhereCommerce approached Square in January in the hope that Square, “given all of its market share and business success, it might find it appropriate to compensate AnywhereCommerce for the use of AnywhereCommerce’s technology on which Square’s business was largely built.”
Griffin added “The success of the entire mPOS industry has been and continues to be driven by innovative technology that AnywhereCommerce has made affordable and ubiquitous. Such innovation requires significant financial investment and years of dedication and hard work from skilled R&D engineers. AnywhereCommerce’s patents and other intellectual property are the result of our relentless pursuit of innovation and commitment towards worldwide mPOS enablement to the masses. In order to protect our intellectual property, we are taking legal action against Square and we will take legal action against other infringing entities. Our lawsuit against Square is the first domino to fall as we enforce our patent rights against any and all infringers.”
Despite massive patent infringement in the industry, AnywhereCommerce has sold millions of card readers in 15 countries and continues to offer unparalleled products and services to the industry.
Michael Kron, CEO of AnywhereCommerce added “we remain committed to vigorously protecting our loyal customers from unlawful infringers and we continue to advocate for clients and the payments industry.”
About AnywhereCommerce Inc.
AnywhereCommerce, a privately held company, has sold millions of card readers in 15 countries. The company is the true pioneer in the mPOS market and sells products to many incumbent payment processors, ISV’s, merchant acquirers and fintech companies. The eight patents, entitled “Apparatus and Method for Commercial Transactions Using a Communication Device,” were issued between 2012 and 2017 and include the technology that Square and others use for Magstripe Readers, EMV Chip Card Readers, Bluetooth contactless and Chip Readers.
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