Samsung flagships pack fingerprint sensors, iris scanners, and facial recognition tech which are more number of biometric authentications than most flagships out there. However, the company is now being sued by a US-based “data security firm,” PACid Technologies, for infringing on two US patents and one Korean patent with its biometric features.
The lawsuit is being filed on April 6th with the Texas Eastern District Court and comprises phones ranging from Galaxy S6 all the way to the Galaxy S8. PACid alleges that two US patents (U.S. Patent No. 9,577,994 and No. 9,876,771) and one South Korean patent (KR20110128567A) have been infringed. Additionally, Samsung Pass and Knox are also involved in the suit.
PACid further adds that Samsung knows about its patents since January 2017 at the latest and that court should accept that claim. Samsung will now have to pay up to three times the standard rate of $1 per phone (35 U.S. Code § 284), or 2.82 billion USD in total.
However, experts opine that PACid is nothing more than a patent troll under the disguise of a data security firm, suing companies that produce and sell products based on loose interpretations of patents. It also has a history of suing Google, Apple, and Nintendo for patent infringement in the past. Samsung is a member of the FIDO Alliance and because the alliance operates on group standards, other players like LG, Google, and Amazon are expected to be sued as well. Samsung, on the other hand, said that it is preparing for the suit in the US.