Yesterday Google announced their long-rumoured NFC Android payment system, Google Wallet. The service was met with cautious optimism from the assembled press, and will begin trials in New York and San Francisco from today.
PayPal however, aren’t very happy about the new product. They have filed suit against Google for misappropriation of trade secrets – secrets which are now, the eBay subsidiary claims, being used in Google Wallet.
The claims stem from the fact that two former PayPal employees, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, are both playing pivotal roles in the development and rollout of Google Wallet – PayPal is accusing both of their former employees of foul play.
Firstly PayPal are stating that Ms Tilenius violated contractual obligations by recruiting Osama Bedier after she moved from PayPal’s San Jose HQ to the Mountain View Googleplex. The eponymous payment service alleges that once Bedier had been headhunted by Tilenius, “[he] and Google misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers.”
Google have not yet commented on the action, a spokesperson saying they are waiting to receive a copy of the suit.
It must be fairly jarring for PayPal to see two of their former employees on stage presenting a Google product that is probably fairly similar to one they themselves are developing. However whether any actual criminal activity was involved is yet to be seen – although Google Wallet seems to be a good product there was certainly nothing ground-breaking that Google couldn’t have thought up by themselves.
The post-launch lawsuit seems to be in vogue at the moment – just recently Apple celebrated the launch of Amazon’s Android Appstore by slapping them with a trademark infringement suit. Call me old fashioned, but I’d have preferred flowers.
