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Cue angry face: Apple sued over animoji

Posted On: Oct. 23, 2017 12:43 PM CST

Cue angry face: Apple sued over animoji

Apple Inc. is facing a lawsuit over the face-recognition, expression animoji feature set to be introduced with the iPhone X later this fall.

Tokyo-based software company Emonster kk filed its suit on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco claiming it holds the U.S. trademark on the term animoji, which Apple is marketing as an upcoming feature that will allow users to animate the facial expressions of emojis using facial recognition technology, according to Reuters.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment. 

Phil Schiller, Apple’s chief marketing officer, introduced the animoji feature during the iPhone X launch event on Sept. 12, calling it a “great experience” for communicating with family and friends, according to Reuters. In 2014 Emonster Chief Executive Enrique Bonansea introduced an animated texting app, Animoji, and registered a trademark on the product name, per the lawsuit.