BASF sues Apple over seven Face ID patents

BASF, through its trinamiX subsidiary, has filed a U.S. patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple alleging that Face ID facial authentication violates seven of trinamiX’s patents. The complaint was submitted in U.S. federal court in Midland, Texas, and targets multiple iPhone and iPad models, with BASF accusing Apple of infringing after Face ID updates beginning years after the technology launched in 2017. BASF says its patented approach is intended to block identity spoofing using photographs, masks, and silicone replicas by improving liveness and materials/skin detection, and it is seeking damages plus a court order to stop using the alleged technology. TrinamiX says it spent years developing the underlying system to address vulnerabilities in traditional facial recognition, claiming the groundwork began in the early 2010s and that it holds hundreds of related patents globally. Apple has not yet commented publicly on the allegations.