Pokémon Go Maker Sued by NantWorks Over Augmented Reality Tech

NantWorks LLC accused Niantic Inc. in San Francisco federal court of infringing its patents with the augmented reality (AR) technology in Niantic’s popular “Pokémon Go” and “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” mobile games.

Niantic uses augmented reality to allow players to interact with the physical world around them in its games. NantWorks told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday it has been researching AR technology since 2011, and owns U.S. Patent Nos. 10,403,501, 10,614,467, and 10,664,518 covering improvements to the technology.

The ‘501 patent covers improvements to realism by allowing AR objects within a scene ...