June 02, 2010
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News: SmartMetric Files Complaint Against Visa & MC
SmartMetric, Inc. announced on Wednesday that the company has filed a suit involving both debit and credit card network giants Visa and MasterCard. The company is the owner of a small biometric device no larger than the size of a credit card that can identify an individual simply by the touch of a finger. With the identity theft and card theft being the fastest growing criminal's acts in the world, security answers have escalated into hugely profitable business as well. SmartMetric claims to be the first to develop the advanced technology considered to be the smallest biometric fingerprint scanner and reader in the world. SmartMetric protects against credit card and identity theft and fraud.
The complaint was filed in a United States District Court as a First Amended Complaint for Infringement of the U.S. Patent. According to SmartMetric's CEO, Colin Hendrick, the company believes that the two credit card network giants, Visa and MasterCard have both infringed on the company's patent rights through the promotion of contactless card systems like VT's Paywave ™ and MC's PayPassn™. These systems use a data card that connects to the credit card network when the card is placed near the reader. The complaint states that SmartMetric received a patent for the contactless card on September 14, 2004 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for its System for Automatic Connection to a Network as the "owner of the patent."
Proof supporting SmartMetric's claims is documentation stating that in March 2009 MasterCard Worldwide released fourth quarter results which indicated significant growth of its PayPass™ credit card. MasterCard's fourth quarter results highlighted a growth of over 100 percent in the number of cards issued representing a lucrative market. SmartMetric, Inc. developed the biometric identity and transaction card that stores the cardholder's personal information rather than in the merchant's or any other organization's data base. An identity and card security solution is available through SmartMetric for consumers, government agencies and corporate group alike.