“Fresh off a $532.9 million jury win against Apple Inc., a Texas company is again suing the tech giant, this time over the same patents’ use in devices introduced after the original case was underway,” Andrew Chung reports for Reuters.
“Smartflash LLC aims to make Apple pay for using the patent licensing firm’s technology without permission in devices not be included in the previous case, such as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2,” Chung reports. “The trial covered older Apple devices.”
“The new complaint was filed on Wednesday night in the same court in Tyler, where Smartflash is also based and which over the past decade has become a focus for patent litigation. Smartflash licenses its patents but does not make products itself,” Chung reports. “Apple said after Tuesday’s verdict it would appeal and that the outcome was another reason reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that make money off patent royalties instead of products.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Another one for the appeals court coming up!
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Hope springs eternal…
In America, greed knows no bounds. No morals, just money.
And religion is becoming the largest hate groups around.
Hmmmm, maybe these are the end of days after all.
/s but only slightly so.
Perhaps a new system for determining patent validity should be actual use (in a consumer product or process used to create such) by the company holding it within a reasonable period of time (say 1-4 years for initial use depending on patent type and up to the validity period or 1 year after the final product using such patent is no longer in the market whichever is earlier. The last part to prevent copycats from riding the coattails too early or suppress new innovations/patents). Failing that, the patent expires allowing other companies to make use of the ‘abandoned’ idea w/o penalty. The patent system as I understand it is to protect the invention/innovation filed by a company for a specified period of time to allow them to profit from and recoup the R&D costs involved in generating the idea and filing the patent. This rule should be beneficial in preventing Patent trolls as well as allow smaller companies to use patents of other companies that are no longer being ‘actively’ used by the original patent holder.
The new complaint was filed on Wednesday night in the same court in Tyler, where Smartflash is also based
NO, Smartflash LLC is NOT based in Tyler. All the company has in Tyler is an office, an address, and no one there, not a single employee in town. It’s a ghost office purely for the purpose of suing victims for patent infringement in Tyler. Why? Because of Tyler’s infamous trial judge who is a sucker for patent trolls.