29 June 2016

GoPro is targeting the companies behind the Polaroid Cube and Polaroid Cube+ cameras for alleged infringements on GoPro patented technologies.

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According to the complaint, lodged on Monday by lawyers Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton on behalf of GoPro, the Polaroid Cube and Polaroid Cube+ cameras make use of an image preview technology patented by the makers of the GoPro adventure camera. The mechanism in contention allows camera users to preview and edit high-resolution images in low-res format. ‘The invention reduces the computation and bandwidth demands of trying to preview the high-res image and can be used in viewing captured images through a [smartphone] app,’ the complaint reads. GoPro also alleges that the protective outer case for the Polaroid cameras infringes on design patents held for the cube-shaped GoPro camera.

Ongoing tussle

The lawsuit against C&A Marketing, the company that makes the Polaroid cameras, and PLR IP Holdings, the holding company for Polaroid’s IP portfolio, comes less than a year after C&A brought its own lawsuit against GoPro for alleged patent infringements relating to the GoPro’s cubic shape. While C&A claimed that patents for the camera’s shape and function had been lodged in May 2015, GoPro retaliated that it had already secured patents for the camera’s design in Asia and the European Union and had obtained a US patent for a ‘square-profiled’ camera in early 2014. At $149.99 per unit, the Polaroid Cube+ retails for around $50 less than the similar GoPro HERO4 Session counterpart.

Sources: The Recorder; Forbes