Apple regularly faces patent claims from other market players, sometimes with grounds for those claims dating back far. Now, German chemical giant BASF has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the American company of infringing on patents related to facial recognition technology.
Image source: Apple
The German company’s TrinamiX unit said in the report oldThe company has been developing reliable facial recognition technology for biometric tasks for the past decade. Many existing methods can be fooled relatively easily using photos, masks, and various dummies.
The plaintiff claimed that as early as 2017, Apple introduced Face ID facial recognition technology into the iPhone X series of smartphones, infringing BASF’s patent rights. It subsequently appeared in the company’s newer devices, including the iPhone 15, iPhone 16, iPhone 17, and iPad Pro tablets. BASF claims that Apple knew it may have infringed on seven TrinamiX patents covering technology to recognize faces, human skin and other materials. The plaintiff claims that Apple’s actions have caused significant and irreparable harm to the patentee. BASF is seeking monetary damages (the amount must be determined by the court) and an injunction to prevent Apple from further using the controversial technologies. The lawsuit was filed in federal court for the Western District of Texas.
BASF has been developing developments protected by the patents named in the lawsuit since 2010. While developing organic solar cells, the company’s researchers discovered technical solutions that subsequently allowed the creation of cameras capable of three-dimensional object perception. In 2014, the subsidiary TrinamiX was established and currently holds more than 800 patents worldwide. She focuses on three-dimensional recognition technology of objects and materials.
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