WeChat Pay Two-Dimensional Code is sued for patent infringement. Who invented the two-dimensional code?

2019Year9Month3On the 15th, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court heard a patent infringement dispute involving two-dimensional code payment technology. Beijing Microcard Times Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhuowang Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. sued Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Tenpay Pay Technology Co., Ltd. and Vancl Eslite (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., that the three defendants had infringed their invention patent rights, tencent and Tenpay have developed and implemented WeChat code scanning payment services, while Fanke has used WeChat code scanning payment services on its shopping website.

The patent name involved is the patentee of the invention patent named "System and Method for Collecting and Analyzing Multi-field QR Code. The patentee claims a system for collecting and analyzing multi-field two-dimensional codes and a method relating to how to implement collecting and analyzing multi-field two-dimensional codes. In this case, the two plaintiffs asserted only the method claim therein.14It is believed that the WeChat scan code payment service uses the same method as the patent in question and falls within the scope of its claims.

During the trial, both parties had a heated debate on the interpretation of the "multi-field QR code" in the claims and whether the products involved have the technical characteristics of the "multi-field QR code" and "identification field" recorded in the patents involved. Plaintiff claims14can be decomposed6Steps: collecting multi-field two-dimensional code, decoding multi-field two-dimensional code, identifying the first field and the second field, analyzing whether it matches, whether the second field has been collected, and according to whether it has been stored, the first result and the second result are given respectively. WeChat scan code payment service falls into its scope of protection, and the steps therein.1-4same infringement, with steps5-6Eequivalent to offense. Tencent Implanted the Steps1-4, Tenpay implemented the steps5-6, the two are joint infringement, Fanke company used the suspected infringement of WeChat scan code payment.

The defendants Tenpay and Tencent did not recognize the claims of the two plaintiffs, believing that WeChat payment system only provides payment channels for users, and the two-dimensional code does not contain merchant entity information, which belongs“Single field QR code”, and the patent owned by the plaintiff is“Multi-field QR Code”Its two-dimensional code will contain specific merchant information, which is different from WeChat payment's operation mode and does not constitute infringement. At present, the case is still in further trial.

Two-dimensional code, can be said to be closely related to our lives, we may need to scan the code every day to pay the relevant costs. But most may not know, two-dimensional code is JapanDenso WaveThe company's employee Teng Hongyuan invented the original two-dimensional code is based on the bar code improvement. However, at the beginning of the invention, Teng Hongyuan did not find the huge commercial value of the two-dimensional code, and has not been optimistic that the two-dimensional code can be widely used in the society.Denso WaveCompany's websiteQRCode.comOn, recorded.“ForJISSpecifications andISOSpecifications developedQRThe use of the code, there is no need to obtain permission, etc., anyone can use it freely.”,“No cost, can be assured to useQRCode is now‘public encoding’It is widely used all over the world.”The company has made it clear that it will not exercise this right and hopes that more people will use it.QRcode, which indicates that the patentee of the QR code has waived the right to the proceeds of the patent.

2001Wang Yue will be two-dimensional code technology to China, and in2005Establish two-dimensional code standard-"Chinese letter code”In addition to the basic technology, it is completely different from the Japanese two-dimensional code. At present, China's two-dimensional code standard has becomeISOinternational standards. The two plaintiffs' QR code patents may also be in“Chinese letter code”developed on the basis.

my country's Patent Law stipulates that the scope of protection of invention or utility model patent rights is subject to the content of its claims. It can be seen from the name of the patent and the two plaintiffs at the trial that the patent contains merchant information, and the WeChat payment system may only provide Payment channels have nothing to do with merchant information. Therefore, the author believes that WeChat scan code payment service is less likely to fall into the scope of patent protection involved. At the same time, if the collection, decoding and identification of two-dimensional codes are known to the public as Tencent advocates, the possibility of infringement is even smaller.