Patent infringement lawsuits and PayPal seem to go hand-in-hand, and this
time the court action was brought by credit card issuer First USA, a unit of BankOne.
PayPal, whose IPO was delayed by a
patent infringement suit last February, of course denied the contention.
The earlier suit, brought by online risk management company CertCo, was dropped in
April.
The latest case, filed in federal court in Wilmington, Del., alleges that the
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Internet payments companyhas
infringed on two First USA patents for a “cardless payment system.”
A PayPal spokesperson was quoted as saying it was “pretty obvious” its
service did not infringe the patents in question. Reuters quoted the
spokesperson as saying that one of the First USA patents for cardless
payments was not issued until after PayPal’s service had been launched.
First USA, a major issuer of Visa cards, had no comment.
PayPal went public on Feb. 15 and now is in the
process of being acquired by auction leader eBay.