More Street View Troubles
Google will be heading back to court in a patent suit brought by Verderi LLC over the popular Street View feature after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the decision of the District Court for the Central District of California and remanded the case for further proceedings. The three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit ruled that the district court judge erred in his interpretation of the patents held by Verderi because the patents discussed the usage of a fish-eye lens, which created curved images. Google had won in district court by arguing that Verderi’s patents only resulted in flat images and thus were not akin to Street View, which allows users to view spherical images to see areas from different angles.
Google’s Street View project has been the subject of controversy, protest, and lawsuits since its launch in 2007, though much of this revolves around privacy concerns.
