RFCyber Corp. filed a complaint for patent infringement against defendants Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. on Friday in the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that Samsung infringed its contactless payment method via its Samsung Pay service on its mobile devices.
The patents-in-suit are United States Patent Nos. 8,118,218 (the ’218 Patent); 8,448,855 (the ’855 Patent); 9,189,787 (the ’787 Patent); 9,240,009 (the ’009 Patent); and 10,600,046 (the ’046 Patent). The asserted patents, “generally cover apparatus and methods for enabling secure contactless payment with a portable device.”
According to the plaintiff, Samsung has infringed at least claim 1 of the ’218 patent by having products with an “e-purse,” allegedly using the plaintiff’s patented method. The “method comprising: providing a portable device including or communicating with a smart card pre-loaded with an emulator configured to execute a request from an e-purse applet and provide a response the e-purse applet is configured to expect, the portable device including a memory space loaded with a midlet that is configured to facilitate communication between the e-purse applet and a payment server over a wireless network, wherein the e-purse applet is downloaded and installed in the smart card when the smart card is in communication with the payment server…” furthermore, the e-purse applet and the payment server communicate over a network to create a secure channel for various operations.
Samsung’s Galaxy S8, for instance, “includes or communicates with a smart card such as an NFC [near field communications] module… secure element, processor, microcontroller, and or memory. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is allegedly “pre-loaded with an emulator configured to execute a request from an e-purse applet, such as a payment card applet within Samsung Pay, and provide a response that the applet is configured to expect.” Specifically, Samsung pay stores the payment card information to allow communication with a payment server on a secure channel via a network. As a result, RFCyber proffered that Samsung has used its patented method for contactless payment.
The allegations for the remaining patents-in-suit are similar and related to those for the ’218 patent. Samsung is accused of direct, indirect, contributory, and induced infringement of the patents-in-suit.
The plaintiff has sought declaratory judgment in its favor, an award for damages, and other relief. RFCyber is represented by Fabricant LLP and McKool Smith, P.C.
