Thursday, October 10th, 2019
In a lawsuit filed on July 26, 2019, Fresno, California-based tech company, AnywhereCommerce, alleges that Square Inc. conducted “willful, wanton, and deliberate” infringement of a collection of patents by AnywhereCommerce that essentially launched Square Inc.’s business.
Square Inc., of course, is synonymous with providing payment processing solutions through smart devices for small businesses. This business format has allowed them to become a multi-million dollar business, claiming $3.3 million dollars in revenue in 2018 alone.
This isn’t the first time that Square Inc. has faced controversy though. In June 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that they accidentally sent some digital receipts to the wrong email addresses, exposing private information about the person.
Their transaction process also had a Canadian barista facing deep charges. The barista, who sold Cuban coffee, would have had a loss of CDN$14,000. The transactions were processed through a company governed by US laws which would have made the owner liable for charges of trafficking prohibited Cuban goods.
AnywhereCommerce’s suit, filed in the California federal court (case number 3:19-cv-04311), cites that they are seeking monetary damages in addition to forcing Square to stop the use of their patents, which includes mPOS technology that relies on a smartphone or tablet for use.
This technology is regarded as the de facto patent family relating to a variety of payment card reading equipment that plugs into a smartphone or tablet.
AnywhereCommerce’s original patent, Patent No. 8281998, was granted in October 2012 and contained 22 claims. Their company argues that a patent later granted to Square co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey “ironically” cited 8281998 as prior art.
According to 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 originally approached Square in January 2019 in hopes of settling the matter outside of court, but obviously that tactic was met with little progress.
Griffin clarified the role of AnywhereCommerce in the development of the technology, “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 results of our relentless pursuit of innovation and commitment towards worldwide mPOS enablement to the masses.
Despite the issue of copyright infringement, Anywhere Commerce claims that it has sold over 11 million card readers in 15 countries, providing singular products and services.
Griffin added, “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.”
In December 2019, AnywhereCommerce filed a suit in Atlanta against Ingenico Group SA that claimed they stole trade secrets and interfered with their contracts and business relationships.
About AnywhereCommerce
The business was founded in 2006 and offers card readers, terminal-as-a-service products, developer tools, and mobile apps to ISVs, ISOs, MSPs, Enterprises, Acquirers and more. They currently have six locations throughout the United States.
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