A small U. S. technology firm, Document Security Systems Inc.'s is reported to file a patent infringement law suit against the European Central Bank, accusing it for unauthorized use of its anti-counterfeiting technology on Euro banknotes.

DSS posted in a statement that it filed the suit in the District Court of The Hague over a patent for technology, which makes it easier to spot photocopied or scanned reproductions of documents or banknotes.

However, the company was under the belief that the technology had been used on billions of banknotes in Germany and the Netherlands alone, two of the 16 countries using the Euro currency.

The DSS patent is reported to be invalidated in the UK, France, Belgium and Austria, post the action by the ECB and DSS said there were pending decisions in Spain and Italy.

A spokeswoman for the court in The Hague confirmed a hearing was planned for Jan. 21, 2011.

The figures reveal that nearly 860,000 counterfeit Euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in 2009 -- mostly 20 Euro notes -- but there are close to 13 billion Euro banknotes in circulation.