Just when Apple would have settled down to celebrate its court victory over arch rival Samsung by being awarded a $120 million on patent rights infringement, the Cupertino tech giant itself has been slapped with a patent infringement case. This time the entity suing Apple is an Israeli company Corephotonics, which claims it holds four patents for the dual lens camera setup technology that Apple has used in its iPhone models iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus.
The startup details in the lawsuit how it was already in dialogue with Apple for using their patented technology and how it went sour. It is claimed in the lawsuit that Apple openly challenged them to go to court and that they are prepared for it.
Corephotonics was founded in 2012 by Dr. David Medlovic and has four patents registered in the relevant technology space between 2012 and 2015. These include two separate patents on ‘mini telephoto lens assembly’, one relating to ‘dual aperture zoom digital cameras’ and the last one covering ‘high resolution thin multi-aperture imaging systems’. Corephotonics has connected the description in its patent to the camera setup that Apple has used on iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus smartphones to drive home the point in its lawsuit that this is indeed an infringement of its technology patents.
Interestingly, Corephotonics has not spared the buyers and users of these two iPhone models also in its lawsuit. The premise here is that the customers who buy the devices are in the know of the patents being held by the Israeli company and Apple is in infringement of the same and therefore they are also liable to be covered as respondents in their lawsuit.
However, since the lawsuit was filed before the physical launch of Apple’s iPhone X, it is not figuring in this lawsuit. iPhone X also sports the same dual lens setup in the rear as the other two phones.
Apple has so far not reacted to the development.