A competitor in the smart glasses market, Solos, has filed a lawsuit against Meta accusing it of patent violations, according to Bloomberg. The legal action demands compensation in the billions and a court order that might halt sales of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Solos alleges that the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Gen 1 model infringes on several patents related to essential smart eyewear innovations. Although not as prominent as Meta and its collaborator EssilorLuxottica, Solos markets various eyewear options with comparable capabilities. Its AirGo A5 model, for instance, allows users to manage audio playback, provides real-time language translation for conversations, and incorporates ChatGPT for queries and online searches.
In addition to overlapping features, Solos argues that Meta gained access to its patented ideas through connections with Oakley, a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica. The company states that Oakley staff were first exposed to its smart glasses technology in 2015 and received a prototype for evaluation in 2019. Furthermore, Solos points to a former MIT Sloan Fellow whose studies on its products led to a product management position at Meta, potentially transferring internal insights. Per the suit, when Meta and EssilorLuxottica began offering their smart glasses, executives from both entities possessed extensive, high-level familiarity with Solos' advancements accumulated over years.
Engadget has reached out to Meta and EssilorLuxottica for responses to these allegations and will revise this report upon receiving any statements.
Ownership of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses lags behind Instagram's user base, yet Meta views the device as a notable achievement in its hardware portfolio. Buoyed by this progress, the firm recently reorganized its Reality Labs unit to prioritize AI-driven wearables, including smart glasses, aiming to expand on this momentum.