PayPal has filed a lawsuit against Google within hours of the unveiling of Google Wallet, claiming the internet giant stole its technology for turning smartphones into digital wallets.
PayPal alleges that Google obtained trade secrets from Osama Bedier, a former PayPal executive who is now Google's vice president of payments.
Google unveiled its plans to allow people to pay for shopping with their mobiles on Thursday and intends to launch the device in the US this summer.
It plans to offer the service on mobile phones that use its Android operating system.
Payment processor PayPal, which is owned by online auction site eBay, also claims that Mr Bedier was in job talks with Google at the same time as he was leading negotiations to make PayPal a payment option on Android.
The technology that allows mobile phone users to pay with their handsets in shops is called near field communications or NFC.
The Google Wallet will be launched in the US in the summer
It is already used in Japan, and is predicted to become popular around the world.
In its court filing, PayPal said: "By hiring Bedier, with his trade secret knowledge of PayPal's plans and understanding of Google's weaknesses as viewed by the industry leader, Google bought the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of its own problems available.
"Google put Bedier in charge of its mobile payment business, virtually ensuring that Bedier would misappropriate PayPal's trade secrets concerning planning and competitive assessments in mobile payment."
Osama Bedier had worked at PayPal as a vice president of platform, mobile, and new ventures until being hired in January by Google.
Osama Bedier had worked at PayPal as a vice president of platform, mobile, and new ventures until being hired in January by Google.
The 'quick tap' service can be used for payments under £15
Google and Mr Bedier have yet to make any comment.
The launch of the Google Wallet comes a week after the unveiling of a 'quick tap' scheme which allows people to buy items costing up to £15 simply by tapping their mobile phone against a contactless payment terminal.
The terminals have been installed in more than 50,000 stores across the UK.
Food outlets such as Pret a Manger, Eat, Subway and McDonalds will offer the service, which has been launched jointly by Orange and Barclaycard.
2 Comments
Paypal simply has become greedy.
ReplyDeletePaypal was the expected norm for making payments online and that is something i have done for nearly 10 years now (It was the only viable realtime option). However where paypal payments are sought you now have the opportunity to pay directly via debit/credit card to avoid the now extortionate transaction fees applied by paypal.
To lay claims to be the founder of the digital wallet is somewhat hillarious.
For the past decade, the public sector has been spending millions on smart card technology for bus's. By the time its actually rolled out it will be obsolete!!
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