PayPal and eBay Sue Google Over Mobile Phone 'Wallet'

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Wow, lawsuits from PayPal and eBay already? That was fast!

Google faced a lawsuit on Friday hours after it unveiled a free mobile application that turns a smartphone into an electronic wallet and is designed to replace plastic credit cards. PayPal and eBay filed a lawsuit in a California state court Thursday charging that the Internet giant tapped into trade secrets for its newly released Google Wallet. Google did not immediately respond to the allegations.
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Apparently a bunch of ex-PayPal/Ebay employees went to Google and took some of their Pokemons with them.
 
PayPal and eBay are two of the scummiest companies I've ever had to deal with. I hope Google wins this one.
 
The idea google has is really great, however I don't see it phasing out the wallet altogether. Gonna be kinda hard to prove your ID/age with a phone.
 
Uhh virtual wallets on cellphones have existed for YEARS on japan.

It will be funny for PayPal and eBay to try and prove otherwise.


/popcorn
 
Revdarian said:
Uhh virtual wallets on cellphones have existed for YEARS on japan.

It will be funny for PayPal and eBay to try and prove otherwise.


/popcorn
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lol...exactly. "Trade secrets"...this qualifies under prior art. If anything, it should be Japanese companies suing.
 
I'd really like to know what kind of trade secrets they're referring to. Methods for processing payments are certainly no trade secret, nor is application development. Especially since this kind of system has existed in a number of places for quite some time.

No, this is not about trade secrets. This is about raising barriers to keep potential competitors out of the market, or at least tie them up in court to delay the inevitable.
 
Azhar said:
Multipass!
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LMAO... good one!
Mohonri said:
I'd really like to know what kind of trade secrets they're referring to. Methods for processing payments are certainly no trade secret, nor is application development. Especially since this kind of system has existed in a number of places for quite some time.

No, this is not about trade secrets. This is about raising barriers to keep potential competitors out of the market, or at least tie them up in court to delay the inevitable.
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This is what I was thinking also...
 
Dev1ant said:
lol...exactly. "Trade secrets"...this qualifies under prior art. If anything, it should be Japanese companies suing.
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Prior art is for patents. This is concerning trade secrets. Meaning, they think Google used company information gained by hiring Ebay/Paypal's previous employees to create wallet.
 
Trade secrets? Oh, you mean the 'proprietary' process they invented to take 25% of the transaction and screw the honest people if there is a dispute?
 
Achron said:
Trade secrets? Oh, you mean the 'proprietary' process they invented to take 25% of the transaction and screw the honest people if there is a dispute?
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The difference between what you believe Ebay/Paypal fees are and what they actually are is quite impressive.
 
Depends if he signed a non-disclosure agreement prior to leaving Pay Pal, I like how the story started off about the law suit, and then the remaining two thirds of the page was advertising the Google app.
 
obs said:
The difference between what you believe Ebay/Paypal fees are and what they actually are is quite impressive.
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By the time an ebay transaction is done, there's the 12% commission, plus the $0.30 + 3% paypal fee. If you're selling something cheap (like I do), that $0.30 becomes a larger percentage. In other words, on a $3 item, you've got (12% + 3%) *$3 + 0.30 = $0.75 = 25% of $3. And both the 12% and the 3% apply to the full transaction cost, including shipping (as of April 19). So the actual amount paid to paypal/ebay can easily exceed 25% of an item's cost.
 
hity645 said:
The idea google has is really great, however I don't see it phasing out the wallet altogether. Gonna be kinda hard to prove your ID/age with a phone.
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They said eventually they'd like to have your driver's license in your Google Wallet as well.

Achron said:
Trade secrets? Oh, you mean the 'proprietary' process they invented to take 25% of the transaction and screw the honest people if there is a dispute?
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Google actually doesn't charge any transaction fees, so...no.
 
Mohonri said:
By the time an ebay transaction is done, there's the 12% commission, plus the $0.30 + 3% paypal fee. If you're selling something cheap (like I do), that $0.30 becomes a larger percentage. In other words, on a $3 item, you've got (12% + 3%) *$3 + 0.30 = $0.75 = 25% of $3. And both the 12% and the 3% apply to the full transaction cost, including shipping (as of April 19). So the actual amount paid to paypal/ebay can easily exceed 25% of an item's cost.
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Yes, for super cheap items where the 0.30 fixed fee is meaningful, the percent is higher. However, this drops off fast when the price increases. And, auction style sales only have a 9% final value fee. On average, I pay around 15% in fees for my auctions

I mean, why stop with $3. If your item sells for 0.99, you pay 45% in fees! 55% if you have to pay an insertion fee!
 
As usual, American companies fighting over something that Japan has been doing for years.
 
Why do I get the feeling this guy could star in a movie about this story?

MV5BMTc3Mzc4MDAwMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzYzNzM5Mw@@._V1._SY314_CR11,0,214,314_.jpg
 
Fleabag and Payscam are definite thieves. I hope Google wins this. Amazon payments FTMFW.
 
G9User said:
Good. Ebay and Paypal are thiefs. More people need to use Amazon payments.
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Amazon payments doesn't find buyers for your stuff. Amazon Marketplace is a gigantic ripoff that's WAY worse than ebay/paypal.
 
And how does this wallet on my iphone deal with hacking?

i can see it now.....an app i installed secretly records and sends my cc info.
 
iOS apps can't exchange information between each other, so I'm not sure how that would happen (nevermind the fact that there is no iOS Google Wallet app in the first place).
 
obs said:
The difference between what you believe Ebay/Paypal fees are and what they actually are is quite impressive.
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You know what's more Impressive? Your clear lack of understanding of sarcasm.
 
obs said:
Yes, for super cheap items where the 0.30 fixed fee is meaningful, the percent is higher. However, this drops off fast when the price increases. And, auction style sales only have a 9% final value fee. On average, I pay around 15% in fees for my auctions

I mean, why stop with $3. If your item sells for 0.99, you pay 45% in fees! 55% if you have to pay an insertion fee!
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Here's my last auction:

Item sold for $340

Total fees ebay/paypal: 44.94

Over 13%.

Tell me that's reasonable.
 
Anyways, PP is claiming that Google took advantage of trade secrets to come up with the idea for Google Wallet.

However, their 'trade secrets,' are simply invalid for the same reason they couldn't patent them: The concept behind it is (painfully) obvious to someone experienced in the art.

I hope Google wins and sues for $800/hr in lawyer fees too.
 
I want to know where I file a lawsuit for my "trade secret" of supergluing my credit card to my cellphone and then swipping my cellphone near the 'Instant Pay' visa system.
 
I thought you patented things you didn't want to have stolen, and if you just kept it a secret it was yours until someone else found out. So whats the legal course here? I just thought it was "well, you should of patented it".
 
AaronGant said:
I thought you patented things you didn't want to have stolen, and if you just kept it a secret it was yours until someone else found out. So whats the legal course here? I just thought it was "well, you should of patented it".
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That's just the difference between a patent and a trade secret. When you patent something, it's made completely public. Every detail.

A company may decide to take advantage of trade secret laws if they don't want the information public. However, it doesn't stop another company from using the idea as long as they came up with it on their own.
 
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