Nexiden sues Ping Identity alleging MFA patent violations

A lawsuit filed against Ping Identity alleges the company infringed a pair of patents for mobile authentication with public key cryptography (PKC) belonging to Texas-based Nexiden.

Nexiden provides expertise and intellectual property related to multi-factor authentication (MFA) and transaction authorization, according to its website. The company focussed on product development in its early days and was accepted to Tech Wildcatters, a startup accelerator based in Dallas, according to a court filing, before transitioning to its current business.

The U.S. Patents in question relate to “Secure registration of a mobile device for use with a session” and “Secure registration and authentication of a user using a mobile device.” The former was issued in 2016, and is referred to in the filing as the “’548 patent” and the latter in 2020 as a continuation, and is referred to as “’872.”

The first of two patents above describes “a non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a computer program for registering a mobile device.” The software includes a private key stored on the device to encrypt and sign messages and uses an on-device authentication mechanism, such as a biometric, to confirm control of the device by an authorized user.

The second describes secure mobile device registration with the same kind of medium (software) and on-server data processing to protect such interactions from identity fraud.  On-device authentication is used with the PKC system to provide sufficient assurance for payments.

According to Nexiden’s lawsuit, authentication through the PingID mobile app and related services work in exactly this way. A court filing from the plaintiff breaks down the how the app violates each of its two patents in question with eight claim elements each.

Nexiden sent notice of its patents and concern about potential infringement in 2023 and 2024, offering to license its technology. The company alleges Ping continued “knowing infringement” intentionally from that point.

Nexiden is asking for an injunction against Ping’s use of the patented MFA technology, along with damages for past, present and future infringements.

Article Topics

lawsuits  |  multifactor authentication  |  Nexiden  |  patents  |  Ping Identity