Patent troll wins against Apple, Iphone found to infringe on 3 patents
28 replies, posted
[IMG]http://www.mobilemediaideas.com/images/mobile-media-ideas-logo.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE]A federal jury has found that the Apple iPhone infringes on three patents held by MobileMedia Ideas, a patent licensing firm owned by Sony, MPEG-LA and Nokia.
Jurors deliberated for about four hours on Thursday before ruling that Apple misappropriated patents covering call handling, call rejection and the camera. MobileMedia filed suit in 2010, arguing Apple ripped off 14 patents; the case went to trial in Wilmington, Delaware after the number of patents was cut to three.
“We’re pleased that the court found infringement on all three patents and we think it’s justified,” a MobileMedia Ideas spokesman told Wired. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson has not yet scheduled a hearing to determine the damages to be paid, but MobileMedia CEO Larry Horn said the amount could be “substantial.”
MobileMedia, launched in January 2010, is a “patent portfolio licensor of inventions.” It owns more than 300 patents, primarily from Nokia and Sony. The holding company is owned by those two firms and MPEG-LA. Some might consider the company a patent troll, but patent expert Florian Mueller says not so fast.
“I wouldn’t call MobileMedia Ideas a ‘troll’ because it monetizes patents on behalf of Nokia and Sony, which are definitely practicing and producing entities,” he said. “It’s a patent licensing and assertion entity and its patent portfolio relates to serious R&D.”
MobileMedia argued in the suit that it would “irreparable injury” if Apple was not required to pay royalties for the patents. “We’re not in the litigation business” and just want to license the patents, Horn told Bloomberg.
Apple is knee deep in intellectual property battles in the United States and abroad. So far, Cupertino appears to be winning the Apple v. Samsung war, with a jury trial finding Samsung in violation of many of Apple’s patents involved in the case and owing Apple over $1 billion in damages (an amount currently in flux as post trial rulings come into effect). Apple settled with HTC, another Android hardware manufacturer it had been litigating, with a confidential licensing deal.
The Cupertino company also has been involved in countless such lawsuits, including one in 2010 over wireless email delivery, its Numbers software, and GPS and voice technologies. Apple and MobileMedia will likely go into licensing negotiations in the near term[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/12/iphone-infringes-patent/"]source[/URL]
I don't know what to rate this. I Despise these patent wars but then again it was the biggest patent troll of them all that got hammered...
One the one hand patent troll, on the other hand Apple.
Not sure if good or bad.
The entire patent system is broken as fuck.
[quote]In a communication terminal device, the connecting state of a call can certainly and easily be controlled without learning troublesome operating methods which are different depending on the connecting state of a call by providing controller for displaying processing items available to a call a display and controlling the call into the connecting state corresponding to the processing item which is selected and determined by the user's operation of an input unit, the user can control the connecting state of the call by merely selecting the desired processing item.[/quote]
Seems legit.
I know we've heard a lot of Apple causing shit with regard to patents but I suspect that the media beats the story up to be way more than it is. I'd say that generally most IT companies get involved in the same patent wars.
I'm really on no ones side when it comes to this patient crap
This phone business and suing is getting out of hand.
I have no strong feelings one way or the other.
Serves apple well.
An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, tho.
They should just do a 'if you invent something new nobody else can copy it for two years so you get the market edge' and leave it at that. There might be a few things that genuinely need protecting for longer, but for mobile phone related shit I think 2 years is more than enough.
[QUOTE=lapsus_;38827176]An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, tho.[/QUOTE]
There's a joke to be made here about the "i" in "iPhone"
Troll Vs Troll.
Did anyone actually read the thread, MMI isn't a patent troll, it's owned by Sony, MPEG-LA and Nokia
[quote]MobileMedia Ideas, a patent licensing firm owned by Sony, MPEG-LA and Nokia.[/quote]
[quote]“I wouldn’t call MobileMedia Ideas a ‘troll’ because it monetizes patents on behalf of Nokia and Sony, which are definitely practicing and producing entities,” he said. “It’s a patent licensing and assertion entity and its patent portfolio relates to serious R&D.”[/quote]
Honestly the reason Apple is infamous for its suing everyone (exception for the 'your logo looks like ours! We demand a million') thing is that it is the biggest electronical company on the world, of course everyone wants to take a bite from the apple if there is bad news about it.
Either way, i demand Patent Copyright 1.1, current one is to buggy and exploited
[QUOTE=lapsus_;38827176]Serves apple well.
An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, tho.[/QUOTE]
No, it leaves everyone with no depth perception.
i' seriously so sick and bored of hearing nothing but patent shitflinging
How can you have a patent on call rejection. How is that even a valid idea? I can patent hanging up? BRB patenting exiting a building.
someone just hit a fucking reset button on patents
[QUOTE=mix999;38829524]BRB patenting exiting a building.[/QUOTE]
Fuck, I gotta leave my apartment in a couple of hours. Oh well, job interviews aren't that important to go to I guess
[QUOTE=mix999;38829524]How can you have a patent on call rejection. How is that even a valid idea? I can patent hanging up? BRB patenting exiting a building.[/QUOTE]
They haven't patented hanging up, they've patented the idea of using a button to hang up. Huge difference.
[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;38834983]They haven't patented hanging up, they've patented the idea of using a button to hang up. Huge difference.[/QUOTE]
Even then that's stupid.
[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;38834983]They haven't patented hanging up, they've patented the idea of using a button to hang up. Huge difference.[/QUOTE]
What you just said: They didn't patent driving a car, just needing to get into the car first to drive it.
[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;38834983]They haven't patented hanging up, they've patented the idea of using a button to hang up. Huge difference.[/QUOTE]
So instead of patenting the idea of exiting a building you can patent the idea of using a door to exit a building?
[quote]
MobileMedia argued in the suit that it would “irreparable injury” if Apple was not required to pay royalties for the patents. “We’re not in the litigation business” and just want to license the patents, Horn told Bloomberg.
[/quote]
Seems pretty legit, depending on the patent royalties they are asking for the license.
From this logic every other company on the planet that uses a button to end a call owes Sony and Nokia enough money to afford to be able to not implode! Sounds like a win-win to me. But yeah, this highlights how pants on head retarded the patent model is in the digital age. Patents don't work when you can prototype a product in a week and have in on shelves in another week, too slow, too much paperwork, and too much lobbying to stifle creativity.
I wonder if this was intentionally giving Apple a taste of their own sour medicine? As everybody has already put it, I'm not keen on ridiculous patent lawsuits but it seems like Apple had it coming for trying to patent the fucking rectangle practically.
I think the major thing about this patent case against apple compared to patent cases by apple is the media coverage.
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