FaceTec Retains World-class IP Counsel as UR Code Adoption Gets Underway

FaceTec has engaged Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, one of the most well-regarded intellectual property law firms in the world, as its IP counsel.

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, commonly known as Finnegan, is a renowned international intellectual property law firm based in Washington, DC. Founded in 1965 by Marc Finnegan and Douglas Henderson, it has grown to become one of the largest law firms focusing exclusively on intellectual property law. Finnegan has consistently been ranked as one of the most prestigious law firms for IP worldwide, receiving numerous accolades and top-tier rankings from various legal publications and organizations.

Its work with FaceTec will focus on protecting the company’s highly sophisticated biometric matching and liveness technologies, as well as its newly announced UR Code protocol.

The latter, in particular, could prove critical, as it offers the means for identity credential issuers to irrefutably bind those credentials to the biometric data of the individuals to whom they pertain. Adoption of this protocol could prove highly consequential for the identity assurance industry on a large scale.

“Finnegan has the global footprint and necessary expertise to protect our 3D Liveness-related IP and our breakthrough UR Code biometric binding protocol,” said FaceTec CEO Kevin Alan Tussy. “We have been impressed with Finnegan’s litigation prowess, including a remarkable win rate in over 1,300 PTAB trials, with extensive litigation experience in the US, UK, and EU.”

First announced in September, UR Codes are essentially QR Codes with embedded biometric and biographic data. An organization that issues identity credentials, such as a DMV issuing driver’s licenses, can encode a person’s biographic data – name, address, and so on – along with their biometric face data into a single QR code. From there, someone who needs to verify that person’s identity (such as a police officer) can scan the UR Code, and use a regular camera to match the biometric data to the face of the person presenting it.

Importantly, the system uses 3D liveness technology to ensure that the UR Code holder really is presenting it in person, allowing it to be used for remote identity verification. This aspect of the system is vendor agnostic—any vendor’s 3D liveness technology can be used. But FaceTec is staking claim to the world’s most advanced 3D Liveness system, having backed it up with a Spoof Bounty Program that offers up to $600,000 in payouts to successful hackers and spoofers—and hasn’t had to pay out a cent in years.

Learn more about the UR Code protocol and how it works by listening to the ID Talk podcast’s latest interview with Jay Meier, FaceTec’s SVP of North American Operations.

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November 26, 2024 – by Alex Perala