Lawsuit claims Apple appropriated idea for diverse emoji characters
Apple has been hit with a lawsuit claiming that its ethnically diverse emoji characters willfully infringe on existing copyrights.
Credit: Apple
The complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, claims that plaintiff Cub Club Investment (CCI) developed "the world's first diverse emoji" brand in 2013. CCI holds more than 20 copyrights covering diverse emoji, and has three pending patent applications and it launched an app, "iDiversicons," on the App Store the same year.
According to the lawsuit, Apple willfully stole the idea of diverse emoji and used it in its own platforms without permission.
Beginning in 2013, CCI said it pitched the ethnically diverse emoji idea to the Unicode Consortium -- the trade organization responsible for the emoji standard. Apple, who is a member of the consortium, attended those meetings. Meetings between CCI and the Unicode Consortium took place in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Furthermore, CCI said it met several times with Apple representatives to discuss a partnership between the two companies. Discussions fell through when Apple allegedly decided against a partnership and proceeded to develop its own diverse emoji designs.
In March 2014, Apple was said to be planning an update to its emoji characters to bring a wider selection of ethnic diversity. In November of that year, the Unicode Consortium revealed draft proposals for a range of emoji skin tones.
According to CCI's complaint, the first letter to Apple about a potential partnership was sent on March 27, 2014, two days following reports that the tech giant was considering development of diverse emoji. Apple ultimately launched the emoji designs with a five skin tone pallet selector as an addition to iOS 8.3 in 2015.
The complaint accuses Apple of copyright infringement, trade dress infringement and false designation of origin, and common law unfair behavior, among other counts.
It seeks a finding that Apple infringed CCI's copyrights; a permanent injunction preventing the company from doing so; an account of profits and advantages from the copyright infringement; and damages suffered as a result of the infringement.
Credit: Apple
The complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, claims that plaintiff Cub Club Investment (CCI) developed "the world's first diverse emoji" brand in 2013. CCI holds more than 20 copyrights covering diverse emoji, and has three pending patent applications and it launched an app, "iDiversicons," on the App Store the same year.
According to the lawsuit, Apple willfully stole the idea of diverse emoji and used it in its own platforms without permission.
Beginning in 2013, CCI said it pitched the ethnically diverse emoji idea to the Unicode Consortium -- the trade organization responsible for the emoji standard. Apple, who is a member of the consortium, attended those meetings. Meetings between CCI and the Unicode Consortium took place in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Furthermore, CCI said it met several times with Apple representatives to discuss a partnership between the two companies. Discussions fell through when Apple allegedly decided against a partnership and proceeded to develop its own diverse emoji designs.
In March 2014, Apple was said to be planning an update to its emoji characters to bring a wider selection of ethnic diversity. In November of that year, the Unicode Consortium revealed draft proposals for a range of emoji skin tones.
According to CCI's complaint, the first letter to Apple about a potential partnership was sent on March 27, 2014, two days following reports that the tech giant was considering development of diverse emoji. Apple ultimately launched the emoji designs with a five skin tone pallet selector as an addition to iOS 8.3 in 2015.
The complaint accuses Apple of copyright infringement, trade dress infringement and false designation of origin, and common law unfair behavior, among other counts.
It seeks a finding that Apple infringed CCI's copyrights; a permanent injunction preventing the company from doing so; an account of profits and advantages from the copyright infringement; and damages suffered as a result of the infringement.
Comments
IANALAIDPOOTV. But copyright can protect look and actual design. It doesn't protect ideas. Unless Apple copied their actual emoji I don't see this going anywhere. Apple adding color choice to their existing emoji shouldn't be an infringement unless the actual emoji were copied in some form.
- A Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.
- Patents are granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent, subject to the conditions and requirements of the law.
- Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that comprise formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily ascertainable by others, and which the owner takes reasonable measures to keep secret.
Each of these things could be used by the company to seek redress from Apple. The proper way to seek redress is in the courts. Not the court of public opinion, but the third branch of government in the US.I can't read the complaint now because the link in the article has become broken. But in theory any or all of these three principles of law could be used. In this case, copyrights could be used if the company can prove that the images look too much like their own images. Patents could potentially be used if they have a patent and that patent is violated by the mechanisms Apple has implemented either visually or behind the scenes. Trade Secrets could be used if the company shared information privately with Apple and Apple knew the information was meant to remain private but Apple used it.
Let the courts do their constitutionally mandate jobs. Let the case progress. Some countries don't have fair judicial systems. Celebrate your system!
I am always happy when anything goes to the courts. The job of the courts is to get to the truth. Nothing is ever wrong with the truth.
Some next level asshattery going on here; to the point where the hats in questions should be outed and dragged through media until they reach enlightenment about their bad ways.
Also: why aren’t they attacking the Unicode consortium? It sounds like Unicode consortium was discussing the idea either earlier, contemporaneously, or later than their own claimed dates, but the lawsuit addresses Apple alone?
Copyright: I don't think this would hold. It's clear that Apple took their existing Emojis and just added different shades to them. They did not suddenly change the design of their emojis to make the shading possible. Shading in general cannot be covered by a copyright.
Patent: Also doubtful. They would have to show both that Apple copied their code, and that their code was in some way special and protectable. It would have to be more than having five different Pantone numbers embedded in each Emoji.
Trade Secrets: Not a chance. They themselves say that they were pitching the idea to the Unicode Consortium, a public group that sets public standards. That would have voided any trade secret on the idea. Plus as others have said the idea of multiethnic Emojis predates their claimed registration by over a decade.
Apple will lose because it's West Texas, but on appeal it will be overturned and thrown out with prejudice.
And I thought the rules had been changed so you had to file these suits where both parties had a presence. I thought that was why Apple closed their store in West Texas a few years ago, so they couldn't be sued in that farce of a district.
How do I protect my idea?
Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.
https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html
At best for CCI. This goes nowhere. At worst, Apple file a countersuit citing this suit as evidence of willful breach of copyright of Apple's emoji images. Hundreds of copied images. That will likely get expensive for CCI.