A Frisco, Texas based holding company by the name of SmartPhone Technologies LLC has filed suit against Apple, AT&T, RIM, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, and Motorola alleging that all the companies named are infringing upon patents owned by the aforementioned company.
Apple faces six counts of patent violations which include power conservation, telephony features, and email sync along with Bluetooth capability. The other companies were named together in violation of U.S. Patent No. 5,742,095, entitled “Personal Communications Internetworking”.
Smartphone Technologies is also seeking undisclosed damages from all of the companies involved, while requesting a jury trial in the Eastern District of Texas, where patent lawsuits are often filed in hopes of a favorable outcome for the plaintiff.
In a 2009 patent case also filed in Texas, Apple lost a similar case against patent holder OPTI Inc. when the same U.S. District Court had found that Apple infringed on patent No. 6,405,291, which meant that Apple was ordered to pay the company $19 million on top of an additional $2.7 million added on as pre-judgement interest, bringing the total judgment to $21.7 million.
Smartphone patents have now become a hot-button issue, with Apple, Nokia, HTC and others all involved in different lawsuits involving various technology patents involving one and/or the other manufacturer in recent months.
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You would think that after losing one similar case and $21.7 million, Apple would not make the same mistake twice?
And why would SmartPhone Technologies LLC file a patent case if they knew Apple already avoided the previous patent care? Apple should have not started this patent suing nonsense, now other company is starting to imitate the patent suing cr4p. hahaha.
Apple didn’t start anything. If you guys bothered to research you would see that Apple was the one sued first. What’s more, you guys all seem to forget or simply do not realize how long Apple has been around and how huge their patent portfolio is. Apple has been doing interfaces, operating systems and devices since the 70′s! All these other companies are jonny-come-latelys. If you guys bothered (or cared) to look you would come to realize that it’s quite probable that given the HUGE size Apple’s patent portfolio, these other companies are stealing Apple’s intellectual property.