Apple Found to be Violating Three MobileMedia Patents By US Court
Apple is fighting patent battles all over the world and they’re not all going their way. Even the big 1bn win against Samsung in the US last August is looking flakier by the minute. This latest setback comes from a court case taking place in the U.S. District Court in Delaware which found that Apple had infringed on three patents held by patent holding (troll?) company MobileMedia who had sued Apple in 2010 for a total of 20 patents.
A spokesperson for MobileMedia told Mashable, “We’re pleased that the court found infringement on all three patents, and we think it’s justified.” MobileMedia is currently also suing HTC and RIM, who could really do without expensive litigation given the current state of the company.
Having Apple lose a patent case may seem good for the soul, but not losing to a potential patent troll, who simply accumulates patents with the express purpose of effectively extorting money by suing others, rather than using those patents to actually make products. This practice stifles innovation, rather than encourages it.
The ruling found the iPhone to be infringing on three specific patents, which were originally granted to Nokia and Sony:
- No. 6,070,068: Covering the display of certain call functions (hold, mute, merge, etc.) when a new call comes in
- No. 6,253,075: Has to do with how the user can reject incoming calls on the phone.
- No. 6,427,078: Appears to be a broader patent on a “device for personal communication” that includes a data-processing unit, a display, a user interface and a camera (among other things).
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