Snap Sued for Patent Royalties on Playvuu App’s Overlay Features

Snap Inc. was hit with a patent-infringement lawsuit alleging it added overlay and augmented reality features to its Snapchat app after telling the founder of Playvuu Inc. it “didn’t see a fit” for technology he demonstrated during a 2016 meeting at Snap’s Venice, Calif., headquarters.

Playvuu, originally known as MySongToYou Inc., alleges that Snapchat’s July 2017 update added a feature that infringes the patent by allowing users to add overlays, filters, and special effects to their photos and videos, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The patent, which ...