Transaction technology developer Universal Secure Registry (USR) accused Apple and Visa of using protected innovations at the core of Apple Pay in a patent infringement lawsuit.

The US-based company claimed Apple and Visa infringed its IP for electronic payments and identity authentication technology in a case lodged with a Delaware court.

In the claim, USR said its CEO Kenneth Weiss presented Visa with details of the company’s patented technology during a meeting in 2010. The information was protected by a non-disclosure agreement and USR believes the meeting predated Visa’s work with Apple.

USR said it also provided more limited details to Apple in an attempt to arrange a meeting with the device manufacturer in the same year. Apple Pay launched in the US market four years later.

The complaint stated: “Since 2014 Apple’s backend servers and Visa’s payment processing network VisaNet, including Visa Token Service, have supported and processed transactions made using Apple Pay, including billions of Apple Pay transactions made in the United States.”

In a written statement, Weiss said: “It is not uncommon for large companies to be unresponsive to outside suggestions for innovation or improvements to their product or technology.”

“Occasionally, these companies infringe patents and force a patent owner to file a lawsuit as the only way to financially benefit from the technology he invented.”

USR did not specify the level of damages it hopes to win in the case.