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PayPal Accuses Google of Poaching Mobile Payment Trade Secrets, Personnel

Posted by timothy on from the department-of-human-resources dept.

jhernik writes with a selection from eWeek Europe's short story on a snag facing Google's new mobile payment system: "PayPal, eBay's payment service, has sued Google over its new Google Wallet service, accusing the search engine of poaching trade secrets for use in its mobile payment service. The suit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court just hours after Google unveiled its Wallet payments sheme, alleges that two key executives who created the near-field communication (NFC) service used company secrets about mobile payments to fashion its own service."

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Fuck Paypal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How many indie projects have they held ransom so far? It mystifies me why people even still use Paypal for -anything-. Skip the middleman and send a cheque, that's what the post office is for. Stop giving money to those criminal goons.

  2. Dear Paypal... by realityimpaired · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Prior Art... Cellphone-based mobile payment options have been available in Japan, India, even Kenya for years... some of these services have been available since before PayPal existed. And if that isn't enough of a prior art for a portable mobile payment system using an electronic network, I have an Interac card and a Visa I'd like to show them... the Interac network has existed since before the Internet (as it is today) existed, ditto Visa's electronic transaction network.

    It is basic electronic security... beyond that, all you need is a unique user ID and a way to bill that user ID back to the customer. Giving somebody a unique account number isn't exactly a trade secret: banks have been doing that for as long as banks have existed. Putting a password/PIN on that isn't exactly a trade secret: that's been done in computer science for almost as long as computers have existed. How is any of what they're doing a trade secret?

    1. Re:Dear Paypal... by jhoegl · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There do seem to be an increasing number of companies jumping on the anti-google wagon.

      I like Google because of their search engine, I use their gmail because it is efficient for personal things and their anti spam is very good.
      I use the front page to pull feeds from other sites and get a quick glance at things.
      I use Android based phones because I like their business model.
      But if Google ever does me wrong, I will find alternatives.
      Businesses really dont have to try this hard to smear Google, eventually they will buckle under their own weight or because some idiot will get into a position they shouldnt be in and make a decision that harms the consumer. I know this is an inevitability, so do most smart consumers. Let it go companies, right now you just look petty.

  3. Re:Title is bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Non-competes are illegal in CA, so that can't be the basis of their suit (or at least not a good one).

  4. Firefox playing up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When I opened this article, it said this is a scam site.