BASF subsidiary trinmaiX has filed a complaint alleging that Apple’s devices with Face ID facial recognition technology infringe on seven of its patents. As you might expect, the filing was in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, which is a popular court for patent infringement filings, due to a case assignment system that often sends cases to a single judge in Waco, and has procedures seen as favorable to plaintiffs.
Reuters reports that trinamiX claims newer versions of Apple’s Face ID, used in recent iPhone and iPad Pro models, infringe on its patents, specifically two features of Face ID:
The description of the included patents are:
While many of the companies that sue Apple over patent infringement are merely “patent trolls” who do not produce any products, but merely exist to buy up patents to use in infringement lawsuits, trinamiX isn’t considered to be a patent troll. (
TrinamiX is owned by massive German multinational companyBASF “that designs, develops, and commercializes advanced sensing technologies, including biometric imaging, three-dimensional vision, and near-infrared spectroscopy solutions for consumer and industrial applications.” The company claims to own more than 800 granted or pending patents globally, and its technology is used in multiple fields, including biometric imaging, material analysis, and several other consumer, industrial, and agricultural purposes.
TrinamiX’s lawsuit hinges on Apple’s cover technology that can detect human skin during facial authentication. The technology addresses an issue with the first version of Face ID that allowed researchers to fool it using specially constructed 3D masks. That original version of Face ID was used in Apple’s iPhone X, which was released in November 2017.
trinamiX claims later models of the iPhone, as well as the iPad, fixed the problem by using its technology, which projects a pattern of light onto a user’s face and then analyzes how the light reflects back to the device, allowing it to better determine the properties of the face’s surface. 3D depth information is also used to distinguish human skin from mask, photographs, and similar methods that attempt to fool facial authentication systems like Apple’s Face ID.
The lawsuit lists the following Apple devices as using the infringing technology:
The lawsuit also notes the technology is used in “other infringing iPhone and iPad models,” although it is does not list those products by name.
TrinamiX is wants the court to find that Apple is infringing on its patents, prevent Apple from naking, using, selling, or importing the products, as well as award the company damages and attorneys’ fees.
The case has been assigned to District Judge David Counts, who was the second-busiest patent judge in the U.S. in 2025 in terms of cases handled, according to IP Fray.
To view TrinamiX’s full complaint, visit IP Fray.