On March 15, 2010, SmartMetric, Inc. filed a lawsuit against both Visa, Inc. and Mastercard, Inc. claiming patent infringement against its patent issued United States Patent Number 6,792,464. The case was filed in the United States Federal Court, Central District of California and given Case # CV1864JHN. SmartMetric claims in its lawsuit that both Visa and MasterCard are in violation of its issued patent dealing with the use of a data card and an automatic connection to a network. The patent infringement is in regards to the “PayPass” system used by both Visa and Mastercard. There had been more than 50,000,000 of the cards issued as of the fourth quarter 2008 by Mastercard to which SmartMetric infringes on their patent rights. The patent owned by SmartMetric was issued in September of 2004.
SmartMetric began preparation of filing the lawsuit in December of 2009 according to a press release issued on December 10, 2009. In January 2010, SmartMetric hired Los Angeles based Intellectual Property attorneys, Waqner, Anderson & Bright, LLP of Glendale California. SmartMetric, as quoted from an earlier press release, “intends to vigorously pursue any and all infringers of its Patents. The Company views Patent infringement seriously and believes that theft and miss-use by others of patent rights to be a serious infringement of property rights amounting to theft.”
The Company is requesting the following relief from the Court against MasterCard and Visa:
• For an order pursuant to 35 U.S.C. section 271 declaring that each defendant has infringed one or more claims of the ‘464 patent
• A preliminary and permanent injunction against each defendant prohibiting each of them from further infringement of the ‘464 patent
• An award of actual damages SMME has suffered by reason of the infringement charged in this complaint in an amount not less than areasonable royalty on each Defendant’s infringement of the ‘464 Patent
• An award to plaintiff SMME of their costs herein
• Such other relief as this Court may deem just and proper
Since filing the lawsuit, SmartMetric has issued several press releases regarding the status of the case. The most recent, issued yesterday afternoon, announced that both Visa and Mastercard have been in contact with SmartMetric with discussions about the lawsuit. They have come to an agreement that both companies will be given ample time to respond and that responses will be submitted by both companies in May of 2010.
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