Apple has won a lawsuit in which the tech company was accused of stealing emoji designs. This was determined by a judge last Wednesday
The company Cub Club filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020, because the company would have copied different skin colors for their emojis from Cub Clubs iDiversicons app. These copies would then have been added to iOS. Cub Club released this app in 2013. A year later, they would have sat down with Apple about a possible collaboration, but Apple then chose to add its own emojis.
A judge in California now ruled in favor of Apple. According to him, there are ‘only so many ways to draw a thumbs up’. The emojis would therefore have to be virtually identical to each other in order to violate copyrights. According to the judge, Apple would at most have copied the idea of various emojis, but that is not punishable.
“Cub Club’s emojis have a color gradient, while Apple’s are more consistent. The design of Apple’s thumbs up has a rounder cartoon look, while cub club’s is flatter.”
Judge’s ruling
Apple sued more often
Earlier this year, Apple was also sued by Krafton, the developer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, better known as PUBG, among others. The company claims that the mobile games Free Fire and Free Fire Max copy their game. That’s why they’re taking Apple, Google, and the game’s developer, Garena, to court. Apple and Google are being sued for releasing the games on the App Store and Play Store.