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Well, Square noticed right away.
Or at least the mobile-payment provider certainly noticed London-based mPowa’s website and proceeded to issue a cease-and-desist request letter to Wagner, claiming mPowa copied a photo illustrating use of Square’s card reader attached to a mobile phone and inserted an mPowa reader in its place with a different background and card. MPowa denies the claim.
Industry observers may not have been entirely surprised if Square had questioned the technology behind mPowa’s reader, or dongle, because of its similarities to the Square reader. Much like the Square reader or the Intuit GoPayment device, mPowa’s dongle plugs into a handset or tablet to allow merchants to convert those devices into mobile point-of-sale terminals.
Instead, and at least for the time being, Square is irritated by the promotional photo appearing on mPowa’s home page showing a merchant swiping a credit card through the mobile card reader.
The letter, addressed to Wagner and issued by Fish and Richardson P.C. as the firm representing Square in intellectual property matters, informs Wagner that Square recently “became aware of what appears to be mPowa’s blatant copying of an image on the Square website for use on mPowa’s own website.”
To an untrained eye, the illustrations on the Square and mPowa websites are strikingly similar, but they have different backgrounds and show different credit cards being swiped.
Witten by Lisa Greenwald-Squire, the letter refers to the specific details of the images, including the fact that the phones and angle of the reader and the merchants’ hands are identical in both images, as is the blue denim shirt worn by the depicted merchants.
The letter requests that mPowa pull the photo from its website and respond to questions about how the photo was allowed to be copied and who performed that task. In addition, the law firm is requesting information from mPowa about how it intends to ensure a similar incident won’t occur in the future.
The firm’s insistence on having something in writing regarding mPowa procedures to avoid similar incidents appears to be a key aspect of the letter, which also infers “it appears that mPowa’s infringement is intentional and deliberate, and that mPowa’s attempt at imitation may extend to other key Square intellectual property.”
Though the incident at least slightly illustrates how heated the competition is getting among niche mobile-payments providers and processors, Wagner views it simply as an annoyance.
“It’s a petty and unfounded distraction that is really quite superfluous and without substance,” Wagner says. “To be honest, I am sure they know that, too.”
As of July 13, mPowa had changed its promotional photo to include yet another different credit card, and the merchant is wearing a white shirt instead.
Wagner contends his company has no intention of being “distracted by this sort of sideshow.” MPowa intends to “get on with its business” and make a serious run at mobile-payment device providers in the U.S. market, he adds.
“This [cease-and-desist] letter is just a bit of silly tittle-tattle,” Wagner says. “As we say over here, it’s a storm in a teacup.”
