GoPro Inc. Stock Plummets After Apple Patents Mountable Sports Camera

Wall Street may fear that if Apple Inc. gets into the sports camera business, it will be bad news for GoPro. Shares of the action-photography manufacturer fell more than 12 percent on Tuesday after Apple received several patents, including one for a remote-controlled camera.

Apple criticized a popular GoPro model when it bought rights to the patent from Kodak in 2012, noting that the HD Hero2 camera can only be used when mounted to a device. Apple notes its own design could go from a hand-held mode to a “streamlined” mode with a lower profile that would be less susceptible to damage and wind resistance when it’s on a “bike helmet or scuba mask, or mounted to the handlebars of a motorcycle or the front of a surfboard.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved Apple’s patents on Monday, including the wearable camera that raised fears about GoPro Inc., the extreme-action camera maker that went public in June. Apple is known to patent a number of technologies without ever implementing them into its product line.

Tuesday was part of a decline in GoPro stock that began in early October, when it reached a high of $93.85 per share. The stock ended Tuesday at $49.81.

The USPTO also awarded Apple a 3D “user interface” that could allow users to control computers without touching them. Similar hand gesture interfaces are found on Leap Motion products. The San Francisco-based company did not experience a similar tumble, likely because it is privately owned.