It is reported that the lawsuit involves four patents, the patent numbers were 9402032, 9568712, 9185291, 9538152 respectively. The USPTO awarded the four patents from November 2013 to June 2016 in smartphones Optical zoom, mini telephoto lens and other dual camera technology.
Corephotonics has accused Apple of launching the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus without the company's permission to use telephoto lenses, optical zoom, integrated wide-angle and telephoto lenses to achieve intelligent zoom for improved image quality and other technical patents. IPhone X listed on the 3rd of the month has not yet mentioned, but does not rule out the follow-up will join.
It is noteworthy that Apple's earliest dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus was released in September 2016, three months behind Corephotonics' last four patents.
In the indictment, David Mendlovic, chief executive of Corephotonics, claimed that they had had contact with Apple for their cooperation, that Apple praised Corephotonics for its patented technology and even hinted that it might infringe on their proprietary technology .
What made Corephotonics angry was that during the negotiation, Apple's chief negotiator was dismissive of patent infringement and disdainfully told Dr. Mendlovic that the lawsuit would be protracted and costly even if Apple had infringement facts.
In January 2016, Corephotonics learned that Apple will launch the iPhone 7 Plus with a dual aperture camera in 2016.
Corephotonics filed four Apple claims of infringement of its rights between 2012 and 2015: two patents for miniature telephoto lens assembly, one for two-hole zoom digital camera and one patent for high-resolution thin multi-aperture imaging system, all of which Is a patented camera lens that emphasizes two fixed-focus lenses developed by Corephotonics' dual-aperture camera technology, including wide-angle and telephoto lenses for use in the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus. Somehow, consumers are also Involved in the lawsuit.As Apple is selling products suspected of infringing patents, the lawsuit claimed that the purchase of iPhone 7 Plus and 8 Plus consumers also infringe Corephotonics telephoto lens assembly patents.Corephotonics require Apple to compensate for money losses and additional losses, at the same time Also called for Apple to immediately stop using dual-aperture camera.It is strange that although the iPhone X also uses a dual lens camera technology, but was excluded from the lawsuit, it may be because the series was Apple's most in November before the market .
Corephotonics, a startup founded in 2012 that focuses on dual-camera technology for mobile devices, was founded by Dr David Mandelovich, a professor at Tel Aviv University who has spent decades in the field of optical and micro-digital cameras Experience. Corephotonics has been conducted since the establishment of many rounds of financing, the most recent round completed in January this year, Samsung Ventures, Foxconn and MediaTek were injected into a total of 15 million US dollars of funds.
It is reported that Corephotonics hired the agent is Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Apple and Samsung during the patent wars, Samsung's agent is Kun Yi law firm.
Apple did not comment on the lawsuit, and it is not yet clear when the lawsuit will begin, but given the San Jose court schedule, the lawsuit may not be heard until next year.
It should be noted that the patent litigation has become commonplace for Apple Inc. Third quarter earnings report, Apple's cash holdings of nearly 270 billion US dollars, so huge wealth has attracted a large number of patent rogue companies continue to Apple to sue for damages. It is reported that some veteran patent hooligan even launched a lawsuit against Apple every few months, and in the past verdict, Apple has indeed lost many times, facing the outcome of hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.