The venture-backed UK start-up, known for teaching build-your-own computer kits and software for coding and related STEM skills, has accused Warner Bros of copying one of its products and infringing its intellectual property (IP).
The product in question is the Harry Potter: Magic Caster Wand, which Warner Bros. announced in October and began shipping to consumers in the US and UK just before Christmas for $150. London-based Kano saw TechCrunch this week and issued a “cease and desist” statement to Warner Bros., asking the media and entertainment giant to end its marketing and advertising efforts.
While Kano is perhaps best known for its Raspberry Pi and Windows-based modular PCs, the company has launched a similar device with Warner Bros.’ A New Way Back in 2018, the Kano Harry Potter coding device is designed to engage kids in the magic of coding, complete with a physical gesture-controlled Bluetooth wand that can cause on-screen gases to change color or feathers to light up with a large swinging motion.
Powering the wand are a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer that help transmit the wand’s direction and movement to the connected tablet or PC.
In the intervening years, Kano claims to have sold about 180,000 Harry Potter Code Watch Wands. That figure rose to 460,000 with gesture-controlled products launched by Kano in partnership with Disney, which also covers the Star Wars and Frozen franchises.
While Kano no longer actively markets the Harry Potter wand, some of its retail partners — which previously included Apple and Target — still sell it.
Copyright granted.
Last April, Kano founder and CEO Alex Klein was granted a patent for the Wand’s gesture recognition system, which covers the basic mechanics of how it works: The user holds down a button to trigger the gesture recognition, and the screen shows a cursor trail. To show how a spell is cast in real time as the user moves the wand.
Kano launched the wand as part of a brand-licensing partnership with Harry Potter rights holder Warner Bros., which is why Klein says he was shocked when he learned the new competing wand was on the market a few months ago.
In a chat with TechCrunch, Klein revealed that he sees Warner Bros. in 2018 off the back of his initial success with Harry Potter’s wand. The corporate arm reached out to Kano to explain a bit about how the product works, including its components and how it detects spells and other potential uses for the underlying technology.
This is where things get interesting regarding his rivalry with Warner Bros.
Like Kano’s original Harry Potter wand that focused on teaching kids how to code, Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter: Magic Caster Wand is about a smart home. It’s designed to connect to devices like televisions, lights and speakers, so users can control their contraptions using “spells” and choreographed hand gestures.
According to Klein, Kano anticipated such use cases with its own wand and made some early advances in the smart home.
“In the process of making it easier for someone to hold a key and type a letter, we realized that this is a new language for human computer interaction,” Klein said. Bertie’s bot is not only making each flavor of bean explode on the screen, it’s also performing a spell. [also] Make gestures to control your lights, open your door, and control the music volume. We understand that this gestural interaction is very powerful and can be extended to other domains in the smart home. So we got them [Warner Bros.] I really enjoyed the idea of controlling this smart home.
Klein TechCrunch has shown a video of an early prototype of the Kano Wand controlling various connected devices, which it says was filmed at a November 2018 demo at Warner Bros. Offices.
In the year Fast-forward to 2022 and Warner Bros. is bringing a similar Harry Potter wand to market, Klein says he’s reached out to various people at the company for clarification and has been told an internal investigation will continue. But the line of communication went cold, leading to Kano’s cease-and-desist letter to Warner Bros. this week.
“A side-by-side comparison of the performance of both coding wands [Kano’s] and the Spellcaster Wand [Warner Bros.’] It makes clear — and now makes clear to many third-party observers, including patent and intellectual property experts — that a problem has arisen,” the letter said. They have shared with the WB in confidence on many of the details.”
The story so far
In the year Founded in 2013, Kano has raised $45 million in funding from notable backers including European VC Index Ventures, Barclays, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and Microsoft, which worked with Kano to create a Windows-based PC in 2019.
Mark Zuckerberg is also a fan of Kano products according to this post in 2021.
Looks like Mark Zuckerberg digs Canon. Image Credits: Mark Zuckerberg
However, Kano has been relatively quiet these past few years, announcing layoffs in late 2019 and releasing little in the way of new products. However, in 2021, the company partnered with Kanye West to launch Steam Player, a device that allows users to stream and mix individual parts of a song. He eventually backed out of the partnership because of anti-Semitic comments made by the West.
Today, Kano continues to sell its Steam player without West’s involvement, and a few weeks ago the company unveiled its Steam projector, hinting at all sorts of new products that could include food and clothing. The company announced that it is spinning off its Kano World creative software business as a stand-alone business, marking an exit from its former DIY PC business.
However, Klein said the company is developing a modular two-in-one device that runs Windows or ChromeOS and will bring it to market sometime this year.
Kano’s upcoming DIY modular PC. Image Credits: Kano
Financially, things didn’t look so good for Kano. In its most recent financial year to the end of March 2021, Kano said it made a pre-tax loss of 10.1 million pounds ($12 million), although that was an improvement on the 16.8 million pound ($20.8 million) loss it posted last year. The company told TechCrunch a few weeks ago that its interim accounts for fiscal year 2022 were pre-tax. Profit About £1.2 million ($1.5 million).
What’s next?
While Klein is naturally inclined to paint an outwardly rosy picture of how things will be at Kano, it’s an encouraging sign that he’s actively releasing new products. However, a claim with a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate may be the last thing he needs right now.
In a modern David versus Goliath, protecting IP rights in court is not a cheap pursuit for a relatively small startup — something Klein is well aware of as he considers his next move.
“It can cost up to $3 million to defend and protect a patent/technology IP,” Klein said. “This stacks the deck in favor of large corporations. They have the ability to throw aggressive lawyers at smaller companies and arrest them in the process.”
At the moment at least, there’s nothing to say for sure that this is how things will play out. But if that happens, Klein said he’s willing to do whatever it takes to defend Cano’s work, citing what attorneys who have worked on the case have told him. Pro bono Basically, it’s a “very open and shut” case.
“If necessary, I will work evenings and weekends and represent us myself. for yourself,” he said. I may not have gone to law school, but all procedures are public, and can be understood with a little elbow grease.”
A spokesperson for Warner Bros. ultimately told TechCrunch that “Kano’s claims are without merit.”*
*This story was updated shortly after publication to include a response from a Warner Bros. spokesperson.
