BASF Takes Apple to Court Over Face‑ID Patent Claims

On Thursday, BASF’s spin‑off unit trinamiX filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, claiming that Apple’s Face ID system violates a suite of its patents.

According to the complaint, BASF spent more than ten years perfecting a way to tell real skin from photos, silicone masks or 3‑D‑printed replicas – a security gap that ordinary facial‑recognition solutions struggle with. When Apple rolled out Face ID on the iPhone X in 2017, the German company says the tech was already on the table, yet Apple opted not to use it.

Fast forward to today, and the lawsuit points to a litany of Apple devices – from the iPhone 15, 16 and 17 to the latest iPad Pro – that supposedly employ the very material‑and‑skin‑detection methods BASF patented. The filing accuses Apple of “knowing or should have known” about the patents and still moving ahead, causing “substantial damages and irreparable injury.”

TrinamiX, launched in 2014 as a stand‑alone venture after a serendipitous discovery in organic‑solar‑cell research, now holds more than 800 granted or pending patents worldwide. The complaint lists seven specific patents that it says Apple is infringing.

The legal action seeks undisclosed monetary compensation and, if the court agrees, a court‑ordered stop to any further use of the contested technology. Apple has not commented on the filing.

Apple’s latest fiscal report showed it sold roughly $196.5 billion worth of iPhones and $21.7 billion in iPads in the nine months ending June 27, underscoring how significant the market is for any facial‑authentication tech.

While the case is still in its early stages, it adds another chapter to the long‑running tussle between tech giants and patent holders over who gets credit – and cash – for the innovations that power our everyday devices.