Payvox LLC has filed suit against eight companies, including Apple, Block, MasterCard and Visa, for infringement of two NFC patents related to advertisement processing.
New Mexico-based company Payvox LLC is suing eight global technology and finance firms— Apple, Block (formerly known as Square) MasterCard, Motorola Mobility, Samsung, Visa, Sony and HMD Global (makers of Nokia phones)—for patent infringement related to their use of NFC technology.
The suit focuses on two U.S. patents related to processing an advertisement via an NFC tag—Patent 8788360 and Patent 8788362, both titled Systems and Methods for Automated Mass Media Commerce.
The technology in question relates to those used to activate an RFID (NFC) reader in a portable communications device, such as a smart mobile or cellular phone, to receive information from the radio frequency signal associated with the advertisement to identify a vendor, product or service.
Payvox was formed in Albuquerque on January 19 of this year as a patent licensing service. The company, who has no publicly listed members. is being represented by Isaac Rabicoff of Rabicoff Law, LLC, a firm that specializes in IP disputes.
Lawsuit Details
The two patents in question are among 17 patents related to NFC technology use that date back to 2010 and later. The patents originated with Harvest One Media and were subsequently assigned to TTN Holdings.
According to the lawsuits filed over the last two months, the suit against Apple claims infringement of the two patents through the provision of NFC-enabled smartphones, including the iPhone XS and iPhone 14. It charges Block with infringing on one patent based on the payment company’s Square Point of Sale app. HMD was targeted for infringement on one patent based on its Nokia 3.4 smartphone.
The plaintiffs also alleged MasterCard infringed on both patents through its MasterCard Tap on Phone contactless payment system. Another complaint claims Samsung infringed on one patent through the provision of its Galaxy A42 5G smartphone, and Sony is also charged with infringement of one patent with its Sony Xperia 1 smartphone.
Finally, Visa, the complainant says, infringed on both patents through the provision of the Visa Tap to Phone contactless payment system.
Jurisdictions
The Samsung and Sony suits were filed in the Eastern District of Texas have been assigned to chief judge Rodney Gilstrap, The Block case is under the jurisdiction of district judge Arun Subramanian; and the MasterCard suit, was assigned to District Judge Analisa Torres, both filed on February 22.
On the same date the Apple suit was assigned to Western District of Texas; and on February 23 Visa, District of Delaware judge Richard Andrews.
On February 23 suit was filed against HMD in the Southern District of Florida under judge Darrin P Gayles. A motion for extension of time to respond was filed March 19.
Radicoff, as well as the suit defendants, did not respond to requests for comments.
Key Takeaways:
- Patent licensing company Payvox, formed in January, has filed suit against eight technology and finance companies over NFC technology use.
- The complainant claims two of its patents were infringed upon based on processing of advertisement.