GMedia Sues Tencent, AliPay and Vancl for Infringing Its IPR to QR Codes
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Oct 17 2017
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
GMedia Sues Tencent, AliPay and Vancl for Infringing Its IPR to QR Codes GMedia Sues Tencent, AliPay and Vancl for Infringing Its IPR to QR Codes

(Yicai Global) Oct. 17 -- Tencent Holdings Ltd. [HK:0700], which was embroiled in a lawsuit for infringement of the intellectual property rights (IPR) to a QR code early this year, now faces another similar lawsuit, along with two other co-defendants.

GMedia Information Technology (Beijing) Co., which sued Tencent Holdings Ltd. [HK:0700] for infringing its IPR earlier this year, has filed a new lawsuit against Tencent's TenPay, AliPay, the mobile payment arm of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA], and Vancl Ltd. for infringing its IPR to the additional QR code technology, it said yesterday, as Caixin.com reported.

GMedia (Beijing) develops mobile phone QR codes. Its parent company GMedia is a joint venture with investments from three venture capital funds: KPCB, DFJ ePlanet, and Lightspeed Ventures.

GMedia (Beijing) filed this lawsuit because the three defendant companies infringed its patent relating to "the system and methods for collecting and analyzing multi-field QR codes," it said. GMedia (Beijing) and Aspire Information Technology (Beijing) – a subsidiary of China Mobile Ltd. [HK:0941] -- jointly applied for this patent in 2006 and the two companies now jointly own it. Aspire has fully entrusted GMedia (Beijing) with conduct of this lawsuit.

The action mainly concerns the core business of QR code scanning for payment, GMedia said. Infringements have allegedly occurred in such areas as online game payment, e-commerce payment, online paid reading and offline store payment.

Although QR codes are now widely used, relevant patents are not well respected. Companies, especially large ones, should recognize the IPR of GMedia (Beijing), said Zhong Liduo, its chairman.

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Keywords:   TENCENT,Tenpay,LAWSUIT,Intellectual Property Right,Alipay,Vancl,QR Code