Roger Fingas
A lawsuit filed on Tuesday accuses Apple of infringing a 2010 patent via the battery charging technology in the iPhone 6s, along with "any similar devices."
The complaint, lodged by Somaltus LLC in a U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas, specifically targets the "fast-charge" features of the 6s battery, MacRumors noted. The phone is said to use a system that that maximizes charging speeds whenever the battery is below 80 percent capacity, above which it switches to a trickle-charge mode. The feature helps maintain the battery's longevity.
That technology violates at least the first claim of U.S. Patent No. 7,657,386, according to Somaltus. In compensation the company is asking for either unspecified damage payments or ongoing royalties.
The company has also filed separate suits against Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.
While Somaltus appears to be non-practicing patent troll of the sort Apple is used to, the latter party could potentially be pressured into a settlement. Somaltus has already settled with carmakers such as Ford and Nissan over the patent, and for Apple settlement costs might be preferable to the expenses of a protracted court battle and/or an unfavorable ruling.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
32 Comments
Easy to circumvent claim 1 of this patent. It specifies a system that turns on/off AC power to the battery. I'll bet toggling from fast charge levels to trickle levels of power would accomplish the same objective, and would then not violate this claim because the power would not be switched on/off, but instead between higher and lower power levels. Next!
Fast charge or fast buck?
If East Texas did not exist, would these suits happen elsewhere?
Conservatives wanted to curtail "frivolous" lawsuits, but did they ever look toward the patent system for "reform"? All I ever heard was about stopping consumers from filing lawsuits against corporations... for "frivolous" things like injury from bad services, drugs...
Our society is getting stomped by corporate executives and politicians who don't care about the measly insects (average civilians, workers, consumers) they trample while slugging it out with each other in the sandbox we built for them.
Hello, worker cast speaking here: it'd be nice if we tried that whole "government for the people, by the people" thing we were told about in grade school...
How the F* is this even a patent! East Texas should be banished from this earth.