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.