Misreported Apple Patent Reassignment Cited For Decline In GoPro Stock Price

Accurate and precise information is of utmost importance regardless of the channel of communication, and the wrong information sent out or interpreted could be a disastrous affair. Take for instance, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office who reassigned to Apple a Kodak patent that concerns a mobile remote control camera system – where such reports have been cited to be the main reason behind a 12% drop in shares of GoPro, the action camera manufacturer.

The newly reassigned U.S. Patent No. 8,934,045 for Apple points to a portable digital camera that can be controlled through a wrist-worn remote as you can see above. If one were to take it at face value, then the document does seem to drop a hint at Apple’s intention to make their way into the action camera market, but the patent’s history reveals something else altogether.

This particular invention is credited to Keith Stoll Karn, Marc Krolczyk and Kazuhiro Joza, who have reassigned the patent to Kodak in 2012. It was then published as an application in 2013, where Kodak’s fairly exhaustive “Digital camera system having remote control” filing points out concerns of a ruggedized digital camera as well as the accompanying wrist-worn remote control, not to mention its waterproof capability, stabilization technology and mounting options when it comes to helmets and bike handlebars.

This particular misrepresentation of Apple’s assigned remote control camera patent is the “fall guy” for GoPro stock decline, where it fell by $6.91.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple
Tags: Patent