Reincubate Ltd. sued Apple in New Jersey federal court this week, accusing the iPhone maker of stealing patented features from its cross-platform Camo app (which turns smartphones into webcams) and incorporating them into iOS’s Continuity Camera to redirect demand to Apple’s bundled offering.
The lawsuit also alleges Apple holds an illegal monopoly over the U.S. smartphone software market.
Reuters:
The lawsuit said Apple’s conduct violates U.S. antitrust law by locking users into its dominant mobile operating system and preventing them from switching to competitors. The U.S. government brought similar antitrust allegations against Apple in a 2024 lawsuit that is still ongoing.
“Apple competes fairly while respecting the intellectual property rights of others, and these camera features were developed internally by Apple engineers,” Apple said in a statement on Reincubate’s lawsuit late Tuesday.
Camo, released by London-based Reincubate in 2020, enables the use of smartphones as webcams for computer-based video calls. According to the lawsuit, Apple “actively induced and encouraged” Reincubate to develop and market Camo for iOS before the tech giant copied it and integrated its features into iOS as “Continuity Camera” in 2022.
In addition to its antitrust claims, the lawsuit accused Apple of infringing Reincubate patents. The company requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages and court orders blocking Apple’s alleged misconduct.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple makes macOS, iOS, and the iPhone camera system. They don’t need one iota of info from a third-party app maker to use the iPhone as a webcam for the Mac.
MacDailyNews Note: The case is Reincubate Ltd v. Apple Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, No. 2:26-cv-00828.
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