‘Euro infringes on patent’

A COMPANY that specialises in anti-counterfeiting technology has claimed Europe’s common currency infringes on a patent obtained from a New York inventor’s family.

Document Security Systems said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in Luxembourg that all 30 billion euro bank notes in circulation infringed on a patent it acquired this year that was issued by the European Patent Office in 1999. It is seeking unspecified royalties from the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

The patent covers a method of incorporating an anti-counterfeiting feature into bank notes or similar security documents to protect against forgeries by digital scanning and copying devices, the company said.