(Yicai Global) Sept. 4 -- Vcard Weika Shidai Information Technology, which has a patent on a QR code technology, requires tech behemoth Tencent Holdings to pay CNY1 million (USD139,730) for using matrix barcodes in WeChat payments. 

Tencent's WeChat Pay does not infringe on Vcard's patent because the former's QR codes use a different logic, the Beijing Evening News reported yesterday, citing the Shenzhen-based defendant during a trial at Beijing's Intellectual Property Court. It did not declare a verdict yet.

Beijing-based Vcard blames Tencent for infringing on its copyright in the entire payment process via Tencent's popular social media application. In 2012, Vcard purchased a multi-field QR codes patent from GMedia, without disclosing the price.  

Tencent's WeChat payment system is based on a single-field QR code, which is different from Vcard's multi-field codes, the defendant added. 

"Scanning, decoding and recognition are all current QR code technologies and the plaintiff should not have an exclusive right to them by artificially separating these fields," Tencent's lawyer said at court. 

Editor: Emmi Laine