Apple has won a ruling that will toss out a $308.5 million patent infringement verdict after a U.S. federal judge said Apple was the victim of Personalized Media Communications LLC’s plan to milk the tech industry for high patent royalties based on old ideas.
Personalized Media Communications LLC’s patent for digital rights management is unenforceable because the company intentionally delayed its application at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office so it could get more money later, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap in Texas ruled.
Personalized Media’s patent application dates back to ones filed in the 1980s, when the term of a patent would last 17 years, no matter how long the application process took. While the company filed hundreds of applications in the late 1980s and 1990s, no patents were awarded until 2010 — and 101 have been issued since then.
Gilstrap relied on a June ruling from the nation’s top patent court that made it easier to challenge so-called submarine patents, where applicants would delay issuance of a patent until after an industry had adopted the technology and infringement suits would be more profitable.
MacDailyNews Take: Stop abusing the patent system.
My question is how much will Apple end up paying to settle the upcoming privacy lawsuits when they start scanning your photos and messages in a few weeks?
James—why don’t you pick one and only one topic? Like half the posters here, you can’t seem to separate issues which have NOTHING to do with each other.
You don’t really care what pocket change Apple decides to spend on lawyering up. They can afford any legal expenses imaginable without effort. Your post just identifies yourself as an underinformed hater, nothing more. Read the Apple user agreement before you misconstrue what Apple does with your files.
James, while I agree with Justinian that this is completely off-topic, I am curious. What possible basis for a lawsuit is there if Apple announces a policy for the use of its iCloud service, requires everyone using the service to agree to the policy, and then follows its announced policy exactly as written? If you don’t like the policy, don’t use the service. Your device and its locally-stored data will remain just as private as they have ever been.