patent infringements Archives

Polaroid: GoPro Session looks a lot like Polaroid Cube, Let The Court Decide

Nov 4, 2015 by Udi Tirosh 2 Comments

Just when I thought that the photography gear industry is getting a bit boring, Polaroid is stirring things up with a new patent suit against GoPro.

Polaroid (or rather C&A Marketing, which holds the Polaroid brand) filed a patent infringement suit claiming that the (now discounted) GoPro Session is infringing on their Polaroid Cube. Polaroid’s patent, dated May 26, 2015, has only one claim: “The ornamental design for a cubic action camera, as shown and described“. So Basically Polaroid is suing GoPro over making a cubical action camera.

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No, You Can Not Patent “Sorting And Uploading Photos For Athletes To Download”

Oct 29, 2014 by Udi Tirosh 4 Comments

A few weeks back we reported a weird patent lawsuit. , PhotoCrazy (owned by Peter Wolf), was suing a South Carolina event photography business, Capstone, for violating a few patents. without going into the technicalities of it Photocrazy claimed that “taking photos of an athlete at an event, sorting the images by the bib number wore by the athlete, and putting them a website” is their patent.

Sound like bull, right?

Right! And court backs it up.

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Are Patents Like The Three This Photographer Holds Harmful Or Ultimately Helpful For Our Industry?

Aug 23, 2014 by Tiffany Mueller 23 Comments

A California based company, PhotoCrazy (owned by Peter Wolf), is suing a South Carolina event photography business, Capstone, for violating three of PhotoCrazy’s patents. The patents, 6,985,875; 7,047,214; and 7,870,035, grant PhotoCrazy exclusive rights to certain workflows that have been commonly used in sporting event photography for quite some time. More specifically, it cites taking photos of an athlete at an event, sorting the images by the bib number wore by the athlete, and putting them a website which allows athletes to quickly find their photos by entering their bib number. Like I said, a very common practice.

Is this starting to remind you of the Amazon patent hullabaloo?
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Sigma Ordered to Pay Nikon $14.5 Million As A Two-Year Lawsuit Comes to an End

Mar 12, 2014 by Maaz Khan 4 Comments

Back in 2011, Nikon filed a lawsuit against Sigma for patent infringement involving lenses with stabilization technology (VR in Nikonspeak and OS in Sigma lingo). The Tokyo district court recently announced its final judgements, and they conclude with Sigma ordered to pay Nikon a total sum of 14.5 million dollars (which is 1.5 billion yen).

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