Polaroid camera makers C&A Marketing Inc. is suing GoPro Inc. for allegedly violating its patent on cube-shaped cameras, referring to GoPro's latest product, the Hero4 Session Camera. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in New Jerysey's U.S. District Court.
The suit claims that the new GoPro is a rip-off of Polaroid's own Cube, a simple, point-of-view camera that is sold for $100. The Cube was released in January 2014, while GoPro's Hero4 Session was released in July, reported Inquistr.
The lawsuit is giving GoPro's latest product another problem, which was noted by analysts at Morgan Stanley to have a weak demand. In fact, the company slashed the camera's price by $100 just weeks after it launched, according to Business Insider.
C&A's claims come strongly because of a 14-year patent it submitted in January 2014 and acquired in May of this year. Strangely, according to the Wall Street Journal, the patent only has 12 words, "The ornamental design for a cubic action camera, as shown and described," followed by seven illustrations of the Cube.
Based on that patent, a federal jury has to decide whether infringement was indeed made by GoPro. If Polaroid's makers win this case, the Wall Street Journal asked, Will it also go after other makers of cube-shaped cameras like Fuhu Inc. Calif. and Chinese camera maker SJCam?
