GoPro’s ability to stream POV feed to a smartphone and adjust the settings has been part of a patent dispute for over a decade, but a ruling from a federal judge on May 14 may have freed the action camera giant from an $8.2 million payment.
Last week, California District Judge William Orrick granted a post-trial motion that cleared the action camera giant from a $8.2 million patent infringement suit posed by lower courts in a case between GoPro and Contour IP Holdings LLC. (That converts to about £6.1 million / AU$11.6 million / CA$11.3 million.)
Orrick also turned down Contour’s request for a new trial that sought even more damages of $172 million (about £128.4 million / AU$247.7 million / $CA236.8 million).
The court case dates back to 2015 when Countour, a holdings company that owns and manages patents, and iON Worldwide filed a lawsuit against GoPro, claiming that several Hero action cameras infringed on a patent for the tech that allows the action cameras to have wireless real-time viewing and control through a mobile app. iON, a former maker of cylindrical-shaped action cameras, declared bankruptcy in 2016 and was later dropped from the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that GoPro infringed on Contour’s patent that generates two video streams – one high quality to save to the memory card and a secondary lower quality stream. That lower-quality stream can be sent wirelessly, enabling live view of the camera feed from a mobile app as well as remote controls.
The patent infringement case doesn’t include more recent cameras from the action camera giant but included the GoPro Hero7 Black, Hero7 Silver, Hero7 White, and Hero8 Black, as well as the original Max. There was some deliberation on whether the Hero9 Black should be included in that infringement, but newer models since 2020 were not part of the case.
The claims have been in and out of the court system for more than a decade. In 2022, a judge ruled that the technology couldn’t be patented because it was “an abstract idea executed in a generic environment.” But when Contour appealed, a Federal Circuit reversed that decision in 2024.
In a trial in September 2025, a jury found that GoPro did not infringe on most of Contour’s patent claims, but did side with Contour on one “Live Preview” tech infringement, leaving GoPro with a $8.2 million payment.
However, the judge’s decision last week wiped out that debt, saying that the claim was invalid.
Contour could potentially file for an appeal, but, for now, GoPro has told investors that it has “no liability arising from the case.”
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