Xreal vs. Viture: What the patent dispute over display glasses is about
Xreal accuses Viture of patent infringement. The legal dispute began in Germany and has since spread to the USA.
Display glasses function as wearable monitors that project content from secondary devices into the field of vision.
(Image: Xreal)
Xreal and Viture are the two leading manufacturers of display glasses. The companies have been involved in a legal dispute since autumn, which began in Germany and has since taken on international dimensions.
Xreal initially accused Viture of infringing European patent EP 3 754 409 B1. The patent describes a specific construction of the “Birdbath” optics typical for display glasses and was granted in May 2025. Viture has filed an opposition with the European Patent Office against the granting of the patent.
After Viture left a cease and desist letter for patent infringement unanswered, Xreal applied for a preliminary injunction at the Munich I Regional Court in September. The court granted the application in the same month. The injunction temporarily prohibited Viture from selling devices in Germany that infringe the patent.
Viture rejects the competitor's accusations in its own subreddit and states that it has both appealed the preliminary injunction and filed a formal opposition against the patent's validity.
Injunction lifted due to formal error
According to court documents available to heise online, Xreal's legal team did not properly serve Viture with the injunction within the one-month deadline. As a result of this formal faux pas, the court lifted the preliminary injunction in November, allowing Viture to continue to distribute its display glasses in Germany and other EU markets without restriction.
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However, the legal dispute is far from over with the lifting of the injunction. The sword of Damocles of a new application or main proceedings continues to hang over the company, especially since the court considered the patent infringement to be a given at the time of the injunction. The current events are therefore likely to be just the prelude to a longer-lasting legal dispute.
The patent feud has also spread to the USA. On January 15, 2026, Xreal filed a patent lawsuit in a Texas US District Court. It accuses Viture of infringing US patent No. 11,988,839, which largely covers the same subject matter as the European patent.
“The lawsuit is about more than just a single patent,” Xreal writes in a press release. The company aims to take action against systematic patent infringements.
Viture, in turn, writes that the patent is largely covered by prior art and accuses Xreal of targeted disinformation.
Xreal is working with Google and ROG on new display glasses
Unlike standalone computers like Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3, display glasses function more like wearable monitors. The glasses are connected via cable to external devices such as smartphones, handhelds, consoles, or PCs and project their content onto a virtual display covering a field of view of approximately 50 degrees. Although Viture is a younger company (founded in 2021, while Xreal has existed since 2017), the products of both manufacturers are now very similar in terms of equipment and features.
Xreal recently introduced two new products, the models 1S and Neo. At least two more devices are announced for this year in partnership with Asus and Google. The first is the ROG Xreal R1 display glasses designed for gaming, which supports a frame rate of up to 240 Hertz and offers a control dock for connecting multiple sources simultaneously.
The second product is being developed under the name “Project Aura” in collaboration with Google, runs on Android XR, and is marketed as a “spatial computer” like the Samsung Galaxy XR. Earlier this year, Google and Xreal announced a multi-year extension of their strategic partnership, with Xreal to act as the “leading hardware partner for the Android XR ecosystem” in the future. Shortly thereafter, Bloomberg reported that the company had raised an additional $100 million in investment capital.
Against this background, it becomes clear that the legal dispute is no longer just about technology, but about the positioning of both players in a market that holds growing potential.
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