Chaum started the company DigiCash in 1990 with "ecash" as its trademark. He raised $10 million from David Marquardt and by 1997 Nicholas Negroponte was its chairman.] Yet, in the United States, only one bank -the Mark Twain bank in Saint Louis,MO- implemented ecash, testing it as micropayment system; Similar to credit cards, the system was free to purchasers, while merchants paid a transaction fee. After a three-year trial that signed up merely 5,000 customers, the system was dissolved in 1998, one year after the bank had been purchased by Mercantile Bank, a large issuer of credit cards.
In June 1998, ecash became available through Credit Suisse in Switzerland, was available from Deutsche Bank in Germany, Bank Austria, Sweden's Posten AB, and Den norske Bank of Norway, while in Japan Nomura Research Institute marketed eCash to financial institutions. In Australia, ecash was implemented by St.George Bank and Advance Bank, but transactions were not free to purchasers In Finland Merita Bank/EUnet made ecash available.
2000 eCash Technologies sued eCash.com, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. eCash.com counterclaimed that eCash Technologies' trademark registration was fraudulently obtained, because it failed to disclose eCash.com's registration of the "ecash.com" domain name to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office The court rejected eCash.com's counterclaim saying a trademark applicant must disclose a third party's rights only if they are "clearly established." The court argued because the "mere registration of a domain name does not confer trademark rights, let alone "clearly established" rights, ECash Technologies had no duty to disclose defendant's registration of the “ecash.com” domain name to the PTO, however eCash Technologies subsequently went bankrupt and the domain "Ecash.com" remained in possession of the original owner.
As of 2015, the term eCash is used for the digital cash that can be stored on an electronically sensitive card including online or alternative payment portals and mobile applications.In 2016, Due Inc was granted the “ecash” trademark.
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