apple, samsung and about half of the world's car manufacturers have been sued by the holder of a patent that would describe a system to control cars with applications for smartwatches.
This patent would describe the functionality offered by these applications, specifically the possibility to start/stop the car, lock/unlock the doors, control the air conditioning system, etc., all using an application installed on a smartwatch, such as Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), Watch, for example.
Intellectual Capital Consulting is the company that initiated the process, it being specialized in processes based on patents, so we are talking about a patent troll that tries to extract money from large companies based on old patents, such as the one invoked now.
The lawsuit was filed by the company during this summer, but it only came to the media's attention now, and separately from the previously mentioned companies, including some app developers, were named in the app development lawsuit.
A remote watch design for a car security system, comprising of a display screen and base with keypad. A user of the remote watch will not only be able to keep track of the time but will also be able to arm/lock, disarm/unlock and remotely start their vehicle by pushing specific buttons on the watch. It is common for people to lose or misplace their keys along with the keyless remote that is attached to the keys.
The patent cited in the lawsuit was registered in 2003, and it describes part of the functionality of some applications, but not all that they offer for controlling cars, so it is unlikely that the lawsuit will really be successful in court.
Considering that we are talking about a single company that is fighting with a multitude of large car manufacturers and not only that, it is unlikely that any money will be paid due to the development of these applications.
