Samsung demanded to cancel the patent of Sqwin SA after the ban on the sale of smartphones in Russia Swiss Sqwin SA on the electronic payment system, due to which the Russian court banned the sale of 61 models of smartphones in the country, writes Kommersant.
The company indicated that the Sqwin SA patent was registered in Russia in April 2019. The reason for this was the international priority application of December 21, 2012, filed with the German Patent Office. However, since then, the description of the invention has been changed so that it falls under the technology used by Samsung since 2015.
As a result, the patent from 2019 allowed the Swiss company to achieve a ban on the Samsung Pay payment service and the devices with which it can be used. A month ago, the Moscow Arbitration Court clarified all brands of smartphones that are subject to restrictions on import, sale and storage. The decision did not enter into force, as the manufacturer challenged it.
Managing partner of the Moscow office of Hogan Lovells (representing the interests of Samsung) Natalya Gulyaeva stressed that the corporation has two objections to patent registration at once. Firstly, this is the lack of technical novelty, and secondly, the discrepancy between the Russian application and the original international one.
Yuri Fedyukin, managing partner of Enterprise Legal Solutions, believes that Samsung will not be able to prove the lack of technical novelty, because in 2012 there was no contactless payment technology in the world.
On the second point, lawyer Ekaterina Plyusova noted that the inventor has the right to specification of the invention, but not through expansion. According to her, the Russian description indicates the possibility of generating a unique code by the buyer's mobile device and its further transfer to the seller's cash system as an alternative contactless payment technology. Meanwhile, such functionality is not described in the documents from 2012.
Experts believe that if the patent is invalidated, the court's decision to ban the service will be canceled. However, Sqwin SA may challenge the conclusion of Rospatent. The next hearing on the case is scheduled for December 6.
Despite the fact that Sqwin SA is registered in Switzerland, Viktor Gulchenko, the full namesake of businessman Viktor Gulchenko, who is on the board of directors of the Russian dealer Avtodom, is named the author of the patent.