Polaroid Sues GoPro, Claims Its Cube Camera Design Was Ripped Off
The company behind Polaroid cameras has filed a new lawsuit against GoPro, claiming that GoPro ripped off the design of Polaroid’s cube-shaped action cameras by launching the GoPro Session back in July.
C&A launched a Polaroid Cube camera back in January 2014, obtained a US design patent for a cube-shaped camera back in May 2015, and then unveiled the Cube+ in June 2015. The camera has a lens on the front and a large button on the top:
In July 2015, GoPro announced the HERO4 Session, a cube-shaped camera that looks strangely similar to the Polaroid Cube and Cube+. It too uses a large button on one face and a lens on another:
GoPro says that its patent filings — it has yet to receive the Session patent it applied for in 2014 — show that the company was working on the Session long before C&A filed for, and received, its Cube patent.
The design patent granted to C&A is simple and vague: “The ornamental design for a cubic action camera, as shown and described,” the document says. There are 7 illustrations of a cube-shaped camera in the patent.
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’s stock, which has been in a nosedive as of late, dropped another 2% today after news of this lawsuit emerged.