Mikey Campbell
A federal jury on Thursday found products made by Apple and LG do not infringe on video compression patents asserted by Alcatel-Lucent's Multimedia Patent Trust, bringing an end to the nearly two-year long case.
In the suit heard by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Alcatel-Lucent was seeking damages of $172.3 million in royalties from Apple's alleged infringement of three patents and $9.1 million from LG over two patents, reports Bloomberg. The suit took aim at various models in the iPhone, iPod, iPad and MacBook Pro product lines.
The trial was a direct result of Multimedia Patent Trust's initial 2010 complaint in which the Paris-based company claimed Apple and LG copied IP related to efficient data transmission tech used in video transmission.
According to Alcatel-Lucent lawyer Frederick Lorig, at least 33 other companies have paid over $190 million to license the patents, but the defense claimed it was already covered by an industry-wide "pay-as-you-go" pool. The jury sided with Apple and LG.
“We are very pleased with the verdict,†said Apple attorney Juanita Brooks.
Earlier on Thursday, Apple lost a separate case over screen rotation patents that belong to a non-practicing entity jointly owned by Sony and Nokia.
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
4 Comments
$172.3 million pays a lot of legal fees, once again Apple's legal team delivers the goods.
If it takes 2 years to get to the bottom of this I presume this decision is incontrovertible.
If it takes 2 years to get to the bottom of this I presume this decision is incontrovertible.
You'd think so, but then Apple's patents successfully used in lawsuits are being preliminarily invalidated.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/155005/apple-and-lg-cleared-of-infringing-on-alcatel-lucent-patents#post_2246421"][QUOTE name="PhilBoogie" url="/t/155005/apple-and-lg-cleared-of-infringing-on-alcatel-lucent-patents#post_2246417"] If it takes 2 years to get to the bottom of this I presume this decision is incontrovertible.[/QUOTE] You'd think so, but then Apple's patents successfully used in lawsuits are being preliminarily invalidated. [/quote] I think I need to read, no study, in order to comprehend anything IP related and how this system works in conjunction with the law. Of which I don't know anything about either. As un uneducated in this field, I don't even think logical thinking applies to how this all works. Or from what I've read, doesn't work.