Federal Judge Dismisses Apple Lawsuit About Ethnically Diverse Emoji Characters

Apple has won a lawsuit that accused it of copyright infringement of racially diverse emojis in the platform. A federal judge dismissed the case on Wednesday, Feb. 16.

Judge Junks Apple 'Emoji' Lawsuit

According to a report by Apple Insider, the lawsuit alleged the Cupertino giant imitated the famous diverse emoji branding from the plaintiff.

The complainant is Cub Club Investment. It first utilized the racially diverse characters almost nine years ago. In addition, it held three pending patent applications besides 20 copyrights.

Per Vince Chhabria, the US District Judge in California, the claims involved "weak" copyright allegations. The copyright cannot simply protect a company's ideas or the inventor. Instead, it will only cover the implementation of how they are made.

"There aren't many ways that someone could implement this idea. After all, there are only so many ways to draw a thumbs up," Judge Chhabria pointed out.

Difference Between Apple and CCI's Emojis

Although he allowed CCI to defend its claims, the court ruling was reportedly skeptical about it since there are differences in the emojis that should be noted.

In another report from iMore, the iDiversicons app, made possible with Katrina Parrott, was believed to be the first application to utilize the emoji with various skin tones. It was launched in 2013.

A year later, a potential collaboration of the app with the tech giant was tackled. However, it did not push through, but Apple created its original brand of racially diverse emojis.

Other Apple Lawsuits

Back in September 2021, a developer who once worked in the Apple App Store accused the tech titan of copying his creation. According to Tech Times, the company emulated the newly-introduced Swipe Keyboard at that time, which was created for the Apple Watch.

Kosta Eleftheriou revealed that he now knew why Apple removed his app from the Apple Watch platform. Aside from using his technology, the Cupertino firm had also copied the same functionality that he added to the keyboard.

Another infamous lawsuit that Apple previously faced involved its charger-less iPhone 12 ProMax. The Chinese complainants said that Apple sold the device without the important accessory.

Furthermore, the students said that the firm placed an incompatible USB-C lightning cable inside the iPhone package. When one student tested it, it was found out that it did not function as planned.

Aside from these claims, they also believed that the iPhone maker was only using "waste reduction" as a clear excuse for the promotion of its MagSafe wireless charging capability.

In the same year, Taiwan also hit the iPad creator for removing the charging adapters on the devices.

Similarly, Brazil and France filed a lawsuit against Apple for the same reason: excluding the charge on the iPhone 12 box.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry