“Apple Inc. said the patent claims of a 70-year-old electrical engineer who maintains he invented the smartphone don’t add up, as the case goes before a jury to decide whether Apple is liable for infringement,” Edvard Pettersson reports for Bloomberg. “‘His invention was using your computer as your cell phone,’ Mark Scarsi, Apple’s lawyer, told the jurors in his closing statement today in federal court in Los Angeles. ‘That’s not an iPhone.'”
“NetAirus Technologies LLC, a company owned by inventor Richard L. Ditzik, alleged that Apple infringes a patent for a handheld device that combines computer and wireless-communications functions over both a Wi-Fi and a cellular network,” Pettersson reports. “Damages he can win in the trial are limited to sales of Apple’s iPhone 4 in the past 13 months.”
“Scarsi asked the jury to find that the patent was invalid and not infringed by Apple’s iPhone,” Pettersson reports. “Apple ‘shamelessly’ stole Ditzik’s invention, NetAirus’s lawyer, Ray Niro, said in his closing statement. ‘Apple somewhere along the line lost their way,’ Niro told the jurors. ‘They lost their sense of responsibility.’ Niro said a royalty of $500,000 would be reasonable for Apple’s use of the patented technology.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ray should lay off the hot sauce on trial days. Try ketchup instead.
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NetAirus Technologies sues Apple, says entire iPhone concept infringes on its patent – May 4, 2010