Patent dispute of Starbucks Korea and The Real Marketing

Starbucks, the world 's largest coffee franchise brand, originated in the name of Starbucks, the world' s foremost mobilizer of coffee - loving characters from the American novel Moby Dick, was first established in the US in 1971. To date, it’s running approx. 23,000 stores in 64 countries. Since the opening of the first shop in front of Ewha Womans University in 1999, Korea is also enjoying great popularity, such as achieving KRW 1.5 trillion in annual sales for the first time in Korea as a coffee shop.

flickr.comⓒfrankieleon

Electronic receipt service of Starbucks Korea,
Starbucks Korea has introduced a service to issue a mobile electronic receipt instead of a paper receipt. When you pay for a drink, you can see your electronic receipt by automatically connecting the app in your mobile. Consumers were also satisfied with reducing waste and environmental pollution caused by using paper receipts.

realmktshop.kr (The Real Marketing homepage)
Says "what kind of world will come if the receipt comes into the mobile?" 

The Real Marketing, which serves commercial electronic receipt business such as TOM N TOMS, Lotte Members and LG U+, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Starbucks Korea in February. The Starbucks Korea app's electronic receipt service infringed their patent of method of an electronic receipt that they filed in 2011. Patents claiming infringement include a QR code for identifying a member to join, a QR code reading to request payment approval, and an electronic receipt for payment details. The Real Marketing insisted that Starbucks Korea apps should be banned from using electronic receipts and pay 1,000,000 won (US$900) per day. They also said they filed a lawsuit to give a warning to a conglomerate that copied the idea of ​​a small business.

wipsglobal.com/ WIPS patent search database
KR patent drawing about electronic receipt owned by The Real Marketing 

Starbucks Korea's refutation,

Starbucks Korea said that its QR code is not created during the sign-up phase but is a new payment method that is only valid for 10 minutes and is different from the QR code of the real marketing created for individual recognition. The Real Marketing insisted that Starbucks Korea just only retorted with no technical data to prove.

In the coffee industry, there is a strong argument that there is no infringement due to the difference between the two methods vs it’s clearly coying the idea. Starbucks, the world's largest coffee franchise company, and domestic start-ups, The Real Marketing, it’s becoming more interesting who will get their hands on the lawsuit.