Patent case: Yu v. Apple Inc., USA

Patent asserted against Apple and Samsung merely claimed the abstract idea of taking two pictures and using those pictures to enhance each other in some way.

A district court’s dismissal of infringement actions accusing Apple and Samsung of infringing a patent for digital cameras with multiple lenses was upheld by a divided Federal Circuit panel, based on its finding that the patent-in-suit merely claimed the abstract idea of a digital camera with basic digital camera parts, performing their basic functions to enhance photos. The patent owners did not add any inventive concept sufficient to transform the claimed abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention. Circuit Judge Newman filed a dissention opinion to express her view that the patent described a patent-eligible mechanical and electronic device of defined structure and mechanism (Yu v. Apple Inc., June 11, 2021, Prost, S.).

Case date: 11 June 2021

Case number: No. 2020-1760

Court: United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.