Line ordered to shell out ¥14 mil above patent infringement
21 May, 2021
A Japanese courtroom on Wednesday ordered messaging application provider Range Corp. to spend around 14 million yen ($128,500) to a technology provider for patent infringement linked to a feature that allowed users to quickly exchange profile details.
The Tokyo District Courtroom acknowledged that the machine that allowed users to switch account highlights by shaking their smartphones when in proximity was patented by the Kyoto-based Future Eye Co on Sept. 15, 2017.
The IT company had sought around 300 million yen in damages over Line's so-called Shake It! feature, that your iphone app provider withdrew on May 11 this past year.
The court denied Line's claim that a patent for the technology should be invalidated as the feature was "easy to create."
Future Eyes had claimed that Collection expanded its user basic via the feature and earned advertising charges of over 150 billion yen. But the courtroom ruled that the technology only had a limited effect on Line's revenues.
"The number of damages was also low, even though (Line) corralled many users through the Shake It! feature and made a huge profit," Yutaka Tsukamoto, president of Near future Eye, said during a press conference following the ruling.
Meanwhile, Brand said the issue have been "resolved amicably" and vowed to "continue protecting intellectual residence and improve our services."
Line merged with Yahoo Japan operator Z Holdings Corp on March. The iphone app has been famous as a major social communications tool in Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia because it premiered in June 2011.
Source: japantoday.com
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