Apple has got another patent-infringement lawsuit under its sleeves. This time around, an Israeli-based camera technology company Corephotonics has filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the technology on the US company’s current dual-camera packing iPhones infringes several of its patents.
Apparently, Apple and the Isreali company has had contact with each other in the past. According to Corephotonics, the two companies have been in negotiations since 2012. All this while, the company had discussed the dual-camera modules in detail with Apple’s engineering team. The company even granted Apple access to the five-element telephoto lens back in 2012. Later on, in 2014, Apple got access to test boards and lenses and a black box simulation files for lens designs along with software simulator and system prototypes. The lawsuit alleges that this was crucial for developing the camera modules in today’s iPhones.
Apple’s first phone to feature a dual-camera setup, the iPhone 7 Plus was launched in 2016 without reaching a deal with Corephotonics. The Isreali company alleges that a high-ranking official even reached out to Apple once more to resume the negotiations of a partnership a month before the launch but that met a brick wall.
The first patent infringement lawsuit was, thus, filed by Corephotonics in November 2017 after examining the camera module of the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 8 Plus. The camera-technology company claimed that the zoom technology used in those phones relies on Corephotonics’ patents.
EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei Mate X Release reportedly delayed to the end of 2019
A second lawsuit was filed on April 2018 after the launch of the iPhone X. The claim still remains the same. The latest lawsuit targets the iPhone XS and XS Max which still contain the controversial camera technology.
This could be a case of the biblical “hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob” as it could be recalled that Samsung acquired Corephotonics in a deal worth $150 million. However, neither Samsung nor Corephotonics released an official statement of the acquisition. Do we need to add that Corephotonics is the company behind OPPO’s 10X Zoom technology featured on the OPPO Reno?
UP NEXT: The LG G8 ThinQ gets discounted, now sells for $499
(via)
