TikTok taken to court over patent infringement

Texas-based Pixmarx IP has accused Chinese-owned social networking service  TikTok of infringing three digital photography patents.

In a  suit filed on Friday, August 14, at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Pixmarx alleged infringement of US patent numbers 9,792,662; 10,102,601; and 10,489,873.

Each of the patents, which cover technology to embed digital content into images, arose from the development of the Pixmarx application. The app, first released via the Apple App Store in November 2013, does not appear to be online now.

TikTok reportedly infringed the patents through the use of its “effects” features, which allow users to add effects such as filters into the frame, before recording a video.

In addition to directly infringing the three patents, TikTok is also indirectly infringing by inducing direct infringement by TikTok customers and end users, according to the suit.

Pixmarx IP has requested past and future damages, ongoing royalties, and costs.

Snap has also faced the ire of Pixmarx—in May, Pixmarx accused the company of infringing four patents, which include the patents TikTok is allegedly infringing.

TikTok is currently in the sights of the US government, with President Donald Trump accusing the social media site of providing data to the Chinese government.

“This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information—potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,” said an  executive order from the White House in early August.

Late last week, Trump  ordered TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest the US operations of the video-sharing app within 90 days.

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