GPRO GoPro Inc

The maker of Polaroid cameras is suing action-camera maker GoPro Inc. for allegedly infringing on its patent for cube-shaped cameras, a dispute between old and new in the industry that poses another problem for GoPro's latest product.

C&A Marketing Inc., the exclusive maker of Polaroid-branded cameras, filed a patent lawsuit against GoPro on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Newark N.J. C&A says GoPro's Hero4 Session camera illegally copies the design of C&A's Polaroid Cube camera, for which C&A obtained a U.S. design patent in May. C&A asked the court to halt sales of the Session and award it an unspecified amount of money, including all of GoPro's profits from the Session.

In response, GoPro sent the Wall Street Journal its European Union design patents for the Session that were issued in March and said it is still awaiting a U.S. patent it applied for last year. The company declined further comment.

The year-old Polaroid Cube and the four-month-old GoPro Session are both effectively cubes with rounded corners. Both have a camera lens on the front side and large control button on the top. The Session is slightly larger than the 1.4-cubic-inch Cube.

A federal jury might now have to decide whether those similarities mean GoPro infringed on C&A's vague design patent. The patent has just a 12-word claim—"The ornamental design for a cubic action camera, as shown and described"—and seven illustrations of the Cube. C&A, based in Ridgefield, N.J., applied for the 14-year patent in January 2014 and received it in May this year. The patent doesn't mention the size of the camera.

If a jury decides the Session infringes on the patent, does that mean C&A owns the rights to any cube-shaped camera? Fuhu Inc. in El Segundo, Calif., and Chinese camera maker SJCam sell similar cube-shaped action cameras, while Canon Inc. is expected to launch a high-end, box-shaped camera in December for $30,000.

The lawsuit is the latest Session-related headache for GoPro. The San Mateo, Calif. company unveiled the camera, a smaller version of its popular Hero cameras, as its top new product of 2015. But sales have lagged behind expectations, and last month GoPro slashed the price from $400 to $300. Weak Session sales dragged down GoPro's third-quarter results and fourth-quarter guidance, sending shares plummeting nearly 60% over the past three months.

GoPro Chief Executive Nick Woodman has defended the Session, attributing weak demand to a poorly timed launch, strong competition from other GoPro cameras and an initial price that was too expensive. "If we were to start all over again, what type of a GoPro would we develop? [The] Session. And I stand by it. It's my favorite GoPro," he said on the third-quarter earnings call last week.

The Session has higher resolution and frame rates than the $150 Polaroid Cube and has generally received better reviews, though some reviewers have noted its similarity to the Cube.

GoPro applied for a patent for the protective case for the Session on Jan. 6, 2014, one day after C&A applied for its Cube design patent, and received the patent in March this year.

C&A's design patent lists the inventor as Gregoire Vandenbussche, a senior industrial designer at San Francisco-based Ammunition LLC, which C&A hired to design the Cube. Mr. Vandenbussche is listed as the co-inventor on design patents for several headphones and speakers made by Apple Inc.'s Beats unit.

C&A has held exclusive rights to make Polaroid-branded cameras since 2009, a year after Polaroid ceased production in bankruptcy. A parent company called PLR IP Holdings LLC now licenses the Polaroid brand to other businesses.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 03, 2015 12:55 ET (17:55 GMT)

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