Linus Tech Tips Discussion

 Apple Sued by Reincubate Over Continuity Camera Patent Infringement (Full disclosure: I worked at Reincubate two years ago, though on a separate team and product to Camo.)   Summary   Figure 2 from Reincubate’s patent (US 11,924,258 B2) illustrates a cooperative video pipeline: a smartphone “capture device” (top right) with its camera and app (21) is connected via a local link (6) to a computer “control device” (bottom), which runs corresponding software (video conferencing program 62, video control program 61). By splitting tasks between the mobile device and host PC, the system aims to maximise video quality and efficiency .   London-based Reincubate Ltd, maker of the Camo webcam software, has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. District of New Jersey (Case No. 2:26-cv-00828). The suit alleges that Apple’s Continuity Camera feature in iOS/macOS unlawfully “copied the technology” behind Camo and infringes two of Reincubate’s U.S. patents. Those patents—US 11,924,258 B2 and US 12,335,323 B2 (see attached), both titled “Devices, systems, and methods for video processing”—describe techniques for capturing video on a mobile device and processing it in tandem on a host computer. In essence, Camo allows users to harness a smartphone’s high-end camera as a webcam by offloading and sharing the video processing tasks between the phone and the PC, yielding better image quality and performance than a traditional webcam. Reincubate says Apple incorporated this patented multi-device video pipeline into Continuity Camera (introduced with iOS 16/macOS Ventura in 2022) without permission.   Beyond patent infringement, Reincubate also accuses Apple of anticompetitive conduct. The complaint claims Apple “Sherlocked” Camo—a reference to Apple’s habit of building native features that render third-party apps obsolete—after initially encouraging Reincubate to develop and showcase the app. According to Reincubate, Apple had thousands of employees internally testing Camo during its beta and even “made all sorts of promises” to help promote the app. But once Camo proved popular, Apple allegedly replicated its core features in iOS 17 as Continuity Camera, then used OS and App Store control to hinder Camo’s functionality and adoption (for example, limiting Camo’s ability to integrate seamlessly). Reincubate’s filing points out that Continuity Camera only works between Apple devices, whereas Camo was cross-platform (iPhone/Android to PC/Mac). They argue Apple wanted to lock users into its ecosystem and “redirect user demand to Apple’s own platform-tied offering,” all while shutting out a once-willing partner. Apple, for its part, “strongly [disagrees] with the allegations”, stating that it “competes fairly… while respecting intellectual property rights” and that its Continuity Camera features