On August 22, 2016, Investel Capital Corporation (Investel), a Vancouver-based investment company commenced an action before Canada’s Federal Court (court file number T-1406-16) against Snapchat Inc (Snapchat) for allegedly infringing its Canadian Patent No 2,887,596 (the 596 Patent) entitled “User Content Sharing System and Method with Automated External Content Integration”.

The 596 Patent is directed to a graphical user content sharing system, which integrates with an automated external content method to produce geolocation-based digital content, and allows users to brand their social media content with user-related advertising and information. According to Investel’s press release, Snapchat’s “geofilters” technology uses the geolocation of social media users in order to provide on-demand insertion of external content in the form of a frame or overlay on pictures or videos, thus infringing the 596 Patent.

Investel’s Statement of Claim can be found here.

Summary By: Meenakshi Lakhanpal

E-TIPS® ISSUE

16 09 07

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