Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
It is going to an interesting battle between GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) and C&A Marketing. But sales have lagged behind expectations, and last month GoPro slashed the price from $400 to $300.
C&A is asking the court to order that GoPro stop selling the Session and fork over money for the infringement – including all the profit earned so far from selling the Session.
GoPro said several European Union patents for the Session and an United States patent for the Session’s plastic case, all issued in March, show “that GoPro was working on Hero4 Session well before the competitor filed for its patent, which covers its own product-not GoPro’s”. The company indicated that it has also applied for one more patent for the session in the America past year.
Last week, GoPro reported a weak results for the third quarter despite revenue growth of over 40 percent. “If we were to start all over again, what type of a GoPro would we develop?” Polaroid’s Cube is available for $100.
Earlier this year Polaroid announced the WiFi-enabled Cube+ action camera. “It has rounded edges, a slightly recessed lens and a single button on top – all important design elements, all used as well by GoPro for its Hero4 Session”. The patent doesn’t mention the size of the camera.
The wording of the design patent is vague and short. Since then, its parent company called PLR IP Holdings LLC has been licensing the brand to other companies.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, C&A Marketing Inc. alleged that the Hero4 Session infringed one its patents for the shape and functionality of its camera, which it had obtained in May. The Polaroid Cube made its debut in August 2014, while the Session launched in July of this year.
The Cube is a point-of-view action camera that retails for about $100.
