Fintech Knot Says It Caught Atomic ‘Red-Handed’ Stealing Code

Finance technology company Knot brought trade secrets and copyright claims against Atomic Fi Inc., saying it caught the rival “red-handed” based on “honeypot” code that could only have been lifted from its software’s source code.

MyCard Inc., which operates as Knot, said Atomic copied its CardSwitcher payment card software and later launched the similar TrueAuth product, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

Knot, upon hearing rumors of Atomic’s theft, inserted 37 nonfunctional characters into its code as a marker—and they appear in Atomic’s biometric functionality source code, it said.

Atomic ...