In a recent decision, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York invalidated Western Express Bancshares, LLC’s (Western Express) U.S. Patent No. 8,498,932 relating to a method of transferring funds through a bankcard. The court’s decision nixed Western Express’ assertion of patent infringement claims against Green Dot Corporation (Green Dot) for the sale and offering of CashBack Visa® Debit Cards, Reloadable Prepaid Visa® Cards, Load Go Prepaid Visa® Cards, and Reloadable Prepaid…

Miami International Holding Inc. et al. (MIAX) attained five victories within two weeks before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In successive final written decisions issued in October, the PTAB declared that five Nasdaq patents related to electronic securities trading systems are invalid under 35 U.S.C. Section 101. Section 101 defines patent-eligible subject matter. The PTAB determined that all five Nasdaq patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,618,707; 7,246,093;…

In Securities and Exchange Commission v. ICOBox et al,[1] the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) alleges that defendant ICOBox and its founder, Nikolay Evdokimov violated Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act by selling $14.6 million in unregistered securities within and outside the United States.  ICOBox bills itself as an ICO[2] incubator that provides legal, technological, and marketing support to blockchain-based startups and sold its own tokens, “ICOS,” beginning in August 2017…

Howard Womersley Smith, a Partner in Reed Smith’s FinTech practice recently published an article regarding EBA Outsourcing Guidelines and Operational Resilience, and gives his suggestions on what FinTech companies should be prioritizing in this current market. Read the full article on FinTech Futures.…

On 31 July 2019, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published its final guidance on the types of cryptoassets that fall within the FCA’s current regulatory framework, clarifying the resulting obligations for firms and regulatory protections for consumers (“PS 19/22” or “the Policy Statement”).[1] The Policy Statement provides market participants welcome pointers as to how the FCA applies the regulatory perimeter to different types of cryptoassets. It remains the case that definitive judgements…

Reed Smith Partner Herb Kozlov and Counsel Jeff Silberman recently appeared on a segment of “Innovators with Jane King” to discuss the United States regulatory landscape and future outlook regarding digital assets. The segment can be found here.…

On July 8, 2019 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) (both, the “Regulators”) published a Public Statement titled, “Joint Staff Statement on Broker-Dealer Custody of Digital Asset Securities” (the “Joint Statement”).  The Joint Statement follows many months of discussions with certain digital asset securities industry participants seeking registration with the SEC as broker-dealers. The Joint Statement noted the Regulators’ discussions with these industry participants have contributed…