Owner of Fingerprint Authentication Patents Files 2nd Complaint, This Against Apple

Various models of iPhones and iPads violate three U.S. patents on fingerprint authentication technology held by South Korean company Firstface, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) filed Friday against Apple in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. One of the patents (8,831,557), issued in September 2014, was the basis of a federal complaint that Firstface also filed Friday against Samsung (see 1804140001). Two 2017 patents in the Apple complaint -- 9,633,373 granted April 25, and 9,779,419 granted Oct. 3 -- “are not at issue” in the action against Samsung, “but are in the same patent family as the '557 patent,” said Firstface lawyers in a notice of pendency (in Pacer) filed Tuesday with U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco. Apple didn’t comment Tuesday.