Apple settles Retina image lawsuit with Swiss photographer

macbook pro retina eye

With all of the reports we hear every week regarding Apple’s new and ongoing lawsuits, it’s nice to hear about one coming to an end. After a year of battling, the Cupertino company has settled a lawsuit regarding the alleged misuse of an eyeball image during one of its keynotes.

Apple used the photo, which was taken by Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald, to promote its new MacBook Pro with Retina display during its WWDC keynote last summer, as well as on its website, without the proper licensing. And thus, Liewald filed an infringement suit…

The original complaint stated that Apple misused the eye photograph by including it in promotions for its latest Retina MacBook Pros. Liewald alleged that Apple acquired the rights to use the image (complete with makeup) for “layout purposes only,” not for commercial use.

The lawsuit was filed in a US District Court of New York last October, with Liewald seeking a trial by jury to determine damages and potential lost profits. Liewald said the image was covered under copyright, and protected under the Byrne Convention as a non-US photograph.

The photographer seemed to be in it for the long haul, but according to a new document filed last week (via CNET), the two sides have settled the dispute out of court. Exact terms were not disclosed, but the two parties were supposed to meet for a pretrial conference yesterday.

I know we’ll never see them, but I’d like to see the terms of the settlement. I’d like to know how much Apple ended up paying for that eye photograph. Millions?

What do you think?