Court rules Apple did not infringe wireless patents, avoids $100 million payout

A US federal court on Monday found that Apple did not infringe wireless technology patents, claimed by Canadian licensing firm Conversant Technologies, which sought $100 million in damages from Apple for alleged misuse.

Apple wins case, did not infringe patents

The case itself dates to 2012, when a subsidiary of Conversant, Core Wireless Licensing, filed against Apple with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, according to a Reuters report.

Core Wireless, based in Luxembourg, operated out of an office in Texas, asserted fourteen patents mostly covering wireless data transmission technology. The patents came from around 2,000 granted and filed inventions originally assigned to Nokia. However, Conversant took control of the IP stash owned by Core when it purchased the entity in 2011.

Core had reduced the case down to five patents-in-suit, and sought around $100 million in damages. Some of these damages were due to royalties of past, current and future iPad and iPhone sales. Devices named in the case include the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S and 5, in addition to the original iPad, iPad 2, third-gen iPad, iPad with Retina Display, and iPad Mini.

 

When Conversant originally purchased Core, Microsoft held the rights to the Nokia patents, and court documents show the entity agreed to pay for two-thirds of revenue from licensing and litigation to the two tech firms. The report states that a Microsoft spokesperson could not confirm the deal still to be in effect.

Besides Apple being found not to have infringed Core’s patents, the jury also denied the claim by Apple that Core breached fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) license terms for its patents.

The case is Core Wireless Licensing Sarl v. Apple Inc, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 12-cv-100.

SOURCE: Reuters