United States. Motorola Solutions and its Avigilon unit accuse startup Verkada of copying proprietary technology to enter the video security market, according to an pending complaint filed with the International Trade Commission in Washington.
The three patents in the case involve programming skills and the use of artificial intelligence and video analytics to identify people based on gender traits and clothing color, as well as retrieving video footage that is relevant to an investigation.
Motorola Solutions seeks to block imports of Verkada's Mini Series, Bullet Series, Fisheye Series, Dome Series and D-Series cameras manufactured in Taiwan and used by retailers, municipalities and school districts.
According to the complaint, Motorola Solutions alleges that Verkada has relied on Avigilon's intellectual property and incorporated it since its founding.
"After receiving criticism from the industry that its systems lacked many of the analytics features that Avigilon pioneered, including appearance search, Verkada incorporated the same functionality into its own 'People Analytics,'" the complaint reads. "Like Avigilon's previously patented and previously developed appearance search technology, Verkada's supposedly 'revolutionary' people analysis is 'built on artificial intelligence' and allows users to search and filter based on several different appearance attributes, including gender traits, clothing color, and even a person's face."
A spokesman for Verkada told the media that the company values and respects intellectual property. However, in this case, Verkada does not believe the lawsuit has merit and the company plans to vigorously defend its rights and technologies.
The indictment can be read at the following link: https://www.usitc.gov/3565.htm
