Facial recognition event security from Clearview, AxxonSoft draw patent lawsuits

Police and security consultancy Kephart Consulting, LLC has filed lawsuits alleging patent violations by Clearview AI and AxxonSoft.

Clearview is accused of using intellectual property protected by U.S. Patent No. 10,796,137, held by Kephart Consulting.

The patent covers a “Technique for providing security,” based on the capture of license plates of vehicles entering a parking area and facial images of people entering a venue to run facial recognition searches against a watchlist. It also includes capturing the face biometrics of people carrying out violent acts to identify them with facial recognition matches.

AxxonSoft is accused of violating the same patent, along with Kephart’s U.S. Patent No. 10,248,849.

This patent describes a “technique for providing security to an area” by almost identical means – the abstract for both patents is identical. The difference appears to be in a more general scope of application beyond event security. The patents were filed in 2017 and 2019.

What precisely in them is novel enough to qualify for intellectual property protection is not clear. Live facial recognition was used at Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa in 2001.

The filings against Clearview and AxxonSoft claims that real-time facial recognition to monitor a crowded venue was not possible prior to its invention in the 849 patent. “Instead security at large venues have relied upon reactive tactics, simply responding after a security event has taken place,” the complaint states.

“This lawsuit is utterly without merit and we will defend against these baseless claims,” Clearview AI Chief legal Officer Jack Mulcaire said in comments emailed to Biometric Update.

Kephart Consulting identifies itself in both filings as a non-practicing entity that has never sold a product.

Article Topics

AxxonSoft  |  biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  Clearview AI  |  facial recognition  |  patents  |  real-time biometrics  |  research and development