Apple’s Liquid Glass Under Scrutiny
Apple has described Liquid Glass as a translucent material that reflects and refracts surrounding content, dynamically shifting to bring greater focus to apps, controls and navigation.
“The new material, Liquid Glass, is translucent and behaves like glass in the real world,” Apple said in a June announcement. The company said the design adapts intelligently between light and dark modes, with color influenced by surrounding content.
Liquid Glass spans across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26, forming a unified aesthetic across Apple’s ecosystem.
Peer contends that Apple’s system allows users to control the presentation of information within a graphical user interface in a manner similar to its patented selection ring. The complaint alleges that Apple devices receive user manipulation of a selection ring’s position without altering the location of icons displayed on the screen — a feature Peer says mirrors its own patented methods.
The lawsuit further claims Apple Store employees use techniques described in Peer’s patents when demonstrating devices to customers.
