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1 May 2018Patents

Apple accused of patent infringement in two lawsuits

Apple has been accused of patent infringement in two separate lawsuits filed yesterday, with one centring on the iPhone’s dual camera and the other on Apple’s ‘do not disturb while driving’ feature.

The complaint relating to dual camera technology was filed by Corephotonics, a camera company based in Israel, at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

The other was filed by Pennsylvania-based Alert Signal Intellectual Property at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division.

Founded in 2012, Corephotonics said it is a “pioneer” in the development of dual camera technology featured in mobile devices.

Corephotonics claimed that a number of Apple’s devices featuring a dual camera function, including the iPhone X, infringe two of its patents (US numbers 9,568,712 and 9,857,568) relating to dual camera technology.

The patented technology consists of a tiny telephoto lens which fits into a mobile device, while also providing a quality image through the combined use of a digital and optical zoom.

Apple showed an interest in the patents in 2012 and the parties met to discuss a licensing arrangement in 2013, but no agreement was ever made, the suit said.

Corephotonics claimed that Apple was presented with the computational algorithms relating to the dual camera technology at the 2013 meeting, and that the designs shared with Apple “closely resembled what was eventually deployed in the market by Apple”.

In addition, Corephotonics said Apple’s technical staff were shown a demonstration of the patented technology in 2014. Apple reportedly requested a sample of the lens, before “halting” the negotiations.

Later that year news that Apple would adopt dual camera technology in its devices was reported in the media, Corephotonics claimed.

After examining the dual cameras in Apple’s devices, the company said it wrote to Apple to inform it of the infringement in October 2017 but received no response.

Alert Signal’s complaint centres on Apple’s ‘do not disturb while driving’ feature, which blocks notifications if the device senses motion. The feature was first introduced by Apple in September 2017.

According to the suit, Alert Signal owns patents covering a system which is enabled when the velocity of a device matches the speed of a moving car. The system, when activated, blocks alerts such as calls and texts.

Alert Signal’s patented system blocks message alerts with the exception of communication which is marked “urgent” and incoming calls which have been made by the same person in a very short period of time.

The iPhone feature allows the notification of texts marked as “urgent” as well as multiple calls from the same person in a short space of time, the complaint said, and therefore infringes four of the patents relating to the system (US patent numbers 8,212,661; 8,446,270; 8,624,718; 9,313,626).

Alert Signal claimed Apple is also inducing the infringement of its patents through selling devices which feature the infringing elements.

Corephotonics and Alert Signal both requested enhanced damages, legal costs, and injunctive relief in their complaints.

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