On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a ruling that patents owned by licensing company Smartflash, LLC are invalid.
The finding kills Smartflash’s hope of restarting lawsuits against Apple, Google, and Samsung.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a set of rulings by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board which said that key claims in seven Smartflash patents relating to data storage technology were invalid because they described an abstract idea, not a patentable invention.
MacDailyNews Take: Wah-wah.
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Apple makes excellent progress in bid to squelch $533 million verdict – June 1, 2016
On heels of $532.9 million verdict, Apple hit with second lawsuit from Smartflash – February 27, 2015
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Rocket docket jury orders Apple ordered to pay $532.9 million in patent trial; Apple to appeal – February 25, 2015
LOL @ DUMBflash, nothing smart about them, However, their lawyers made a few bucks chasing this ambulance
…because they described an abstract idea, not a patentable invention.
Once again we can point at the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) as THE SOURCE of the problem. It would be amusing if the USPTO had to pay all legal fees resulting from invalid patent disputes.
No, that’s not a solution to anything. Perhaps cattle prods!
No. I think a thorough assessment, overhaul, firing and improved hiring, training and budget consideration is in order.
Meanwhile:
Stupid Patent of the Month @EFF
Software patents are a huge fraud going all the way back to the first patents on “menus”.