Patent lawsuits between technology companies have become a regular affair. Although Apple have had a few successes in its patent battles, the company has rarely been held responsible for infringement itself. In such a rare case, a US court has now ruled that Apple has infringed three patents owned by MobileMedia.
MobileMedia is a company that is collectively owned by Nokia, Sony and MPEG-LA. The entity was created so that it could take care of the patents owned by Nokia and Sony without the two companies having to run around filing lawsuits.
The company has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging that iPhone infringed a number of its patents. It cited the screen rotation patent to provide sufficient premises for the lawsuit to proceed. The court gave the green light after reviewing the patent.
After a trial that lasted nearly a week, the court has now finally ruled that Apple’s iPhone has indeed infringed three patents owned by MobileMedia. These patents include the call rejection patent, another patent that elaborates on the method of defining the call status and finally, a patent that is about the transmission of a captured image from one mobile device to another.
The court hasn’t exactly stated the amount of damages that Apple must pay as a penalty for having infringed the patents. It is also unclear whether Apple will have to license the patents from MobileMedia or it can get away with paying the damages. Either way, MobileMedia folks seem fairly happy with the victory.
According to the CEO of MobileMedia, Larry Horn, “We think it’s justified,” said Horn, adding that the damages could be “substantial.” How substantial they may be will only transpire in the coming days.
Source: Bloomberg
Courtesy: TNW
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