An increasingly bitter battle between VeriFone and Heartland Payment Systems that has seen both file lawsuits in recent weeks, was stepped up today when VeriFone confirmed that it will terminate technical support relationships, and will instead offer free services to mutual merchant customers.
The wrangling is rooted in payment processor Heartland's move to develop an end-to-end encryption system in the wake of the massive data breach it suffered last year.
As part of this project, Heartland worked with Taiwanese manufacturing firm Unelectra International to develop a payment terminal, which was scheduled to be introduced to the US in the third quarter of 2009.
In September, rival manufacturer VeriFone filed a suit claiming the Heartland terminal violated one of its patents. The patent, issued in 2005 to Lipman Electronic Engineering - which the vendor later acquired and renamed VeriFone Israel - covers "anti-tampering enclosure for electronic circuitry". According to the Green Sheet, Heartland responded with its own lawsuit a week later, accusing VeriFone of
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uq_MP204EK_YslYoFkbbf07yIGPFCgNmrDL3cQuF2jFvOTsrT22ae66nZOUVnus47v3Ii2Agbu4bKX4T0vrGzp2vXI4pHHmZ7kQnLzzFsOUpiLx0HlSPn2ZxuPv0O5CAzH1Xs1IHHCj7URsWw1K_ky=s0-d)
