Defendant

Leica Camera, Inc.

1 case as defendant.

Cases
1
Active
0
1 closed
Filed
2022
Top venue
D N J
1 case

Company profile

Company overview. Leica Camera, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of Leica Camera AG, the German premium optics manufacturer headquartered at Am Leitz-Park, Wetzlar, Germany, with a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The business traces to 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar); the Leica brand dates to the 1925 Leica I, and the camera business took the Leica Camera name in 1986. It is privately held, not publicly traded: Austrian investor ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH holds ~55% and Blackstone ~45% (Wikipedia; tagesschau). Group revenue was approximately €596 million in FY 2024/25, up 7.6% year over year, per the company's September 2025 press release. Wikipedia and company materials put group headcount at roughly 2,300.

Products / services. Leica Camera is an operating company, not an NPE. It develops, manufactures and sells rangefinder and mirrorless cameras (M, SL and Q systems), interchangeable and fixed lenses, and compact/instant cameras. It also produces sports optics — binoculars, spotting scopes, rangefinders and rifle scopes — and operates a proprietary retail network of roughly 120 Leica Stores and about 30 Leica Galleries worldwide. Its Mobile Imaging segment licenses and co-develops camera technology for smartphone makers, including a multi-year Xiaomi partnership and a prior Huawei collaboration, plus the Leica LUX iPhone app.

Patent-litigation posture. The tracked data shows Leica Camera, Inc. as a defendant in one case and plaintiff in none, the classic profile of an operating company being sued rather than a party asserting patents. The single suit, Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. Leica Camera, Inc. (D.N.J., filed 22 Oct 2022), was brought by Cedar Lane — which Unified Patents and Korean IP authorities characterize as a Canadian-based patent assertion entity that acquired Intellectual Ventures patents — in the District of New Jersey rather than a Texas venue.

Context. Cedar Lane asserted US 6,972,790 and US 8,537,242 ("Host interface for imaging arrays") against Leica's imaging hardware. The docket records a voluntary dismissal with no merits ruling; the public record does not specify whether dismissal was with or without prejudice.