On 28 October, Apple Inc. urged a federal judge to dismiss a racketeering lawsuit brought by a company that claims the iPhone maker stole its technology to develop the highly profitable mobile wallet, Apple Pay.
In a filing submitted Monday night in Atlanta federal court, Apple requested that if the case is not dismissed, it should be transferred to a Texas judge who recently dismissed Fintiv’s related patent case. Lawyers for Fintiv did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Fintiv, headquartered in Austin, Texas, alleged that Apple misappropriated technology for Apple Pay that it had originally sought to license from CorFire, a Georgia-based company Fintiv acquired in 2014. Apple Pay is used on hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBooks.
According to Fintiv, the alleged racketeering arose from Apple’s use of Apple Pay to generate fees for credit card issuers such as Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, as well as for the payment networks American Express, Mastercard, and Visa.
In its motion for dismissal,
Apple argued that Fintiv had delayed too long in pursuing most of its federal and state claims, despite having been aware of the underlying facts since 2014, and failed to demonstrate a pattern of racketeering. Apple stated, “The court should reject Fintiv’s attempt to revive its failed patent case in a new district with no connection to the facts.”
Apple added that, if the case is not dismissed, it should be transferred to U.S. District Judge Alan Albright in Waco, Texas, to promote efficiency, as he has spent nearly seven years overseeing the underlying dispute and is familiar with both the facts and the relevant law. Fintiv is currently appealing Albright’s dismissal of its patent case on 4 August.
Albright previously presided over nearly 25 per cent of all U.S. patent cases and was regarded as a preferred judge for many plaintiffs suing major technology companies, including Apple. However, this concentration ended in 2022 when new patent cases began being randomly assigned to all judges in his district.
The case is Fintiv Inc v Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, No. 25-04413.