Solos, a smart glasses maker, has filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging patent infringement in Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The suit, reported by Bloomberg, targets the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Gen 1 model and claims it violates multiple patents on core technologies in smart eyewear. Solos seeks “multiple billions of dollars” in damages and an injunction to halt sales of the glasses.
Solos’ AirGo A5 glasses offer comparable features, including music playback control, automatic speech translation into different languages, and ChatGPT integration for answering questions and web searches. The company alleges Meta gained access to its technology through Oakley, a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica, Meta’s partner on the Ray-Ban glasses. Oakley employees were introduced to Solos’ smart glasses technology in 2015 and received a pair for testing in 2019.
Solos further claims that an MIT Sloan Fellow who researched its products later joined Meta as a product manager, bringing detailed knowledge of Solos’ technology. By the time Meta and EssilorLuxottica launched their smart glasses, both companies had accumulated years of senior-level insights into Solos’ roadmap and products.
Engadget has requested comments from Meta and EssilorLuxottica on the allegations and will update the story upon response. Although Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have fewer owners than Instagram users, Meta views the device as one of its rare hardware successes. Recently, Meta restructured its Reality Labs division to prioritize AI hardware, including smart glasses, to capitalize on this performance.
