Tik Tok accused of patent infringement

In summer, Triller, the social media video making app, filed an infringement claim against its rival TikTok, and its parent company, ByteDance. In its claim, Triller alleges the companies have infringed its patent which allows music videos to synchronise with audio.

Tik Tok’s rise to fame this year has been helped by the fact that a large chunk of the global population have had to spent a considerable amount of time indoors in some level of lockdown. Consumers have had more time to spend on social media apps. A number of celebrities have also used the app such as Cardi B, Gordon Ramsey and the Kardashians so this has also helped its popularity. Tik Tok allows people to video themselves dancing and singing along to music, and record voiceovers whilst a stream of pictures appears or whilst a video is playing.

In response to the infringement claim, ByteDance has requested a judicial declaration; a court order that declares its users and products do not infringe the patent and that none of them are liable for damages or injunctive relief.

The social video apps have certainly kept people occupied whilst in lockdowns that have taken place this year and consequently both have 100 million monthly active users. In a separate controversy, Tik Tok was set to be banned in the US from 12 November after the Trump administration deemed it a threat to national security. The app lives to see another day after the US Commerce Department recently halted the ban.

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