Acacia subsidiary and Apple reach settlement after $22 million payout
Apple has reached a settlement with Cellular Communications Equipment (CCE), a subsidiary of patent licensing company Acacia, a year after the technology company was ordered to pay CCE more than $22 million in damages.
All claims have been dismissed with prejudice under the settlement, and each party will bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees.
As reported by WIPR in September last year, Apple was ordered to pay $22.1 million in damages at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas for “wilful infringement of US patent number 8,055,820”.
The ‘820 patent was originally registered by Nokia Siemens Networks (now Nokia Networks) at the US Patent and Trademark Office in November 2011.
It covers “an apparatus, system and method for increasing buffer status reporting efficiency and adapting buffer status reporting according to uplink capacity”.
CCE has a patent portfolio which covers wireless user equipment relating to 3G, 4G and LTE-advanced wireless networks.
In April 2017, CCE filed another suit against Apple, AT&T and Verizon at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Acacia’s subsidiary argued that the defendants had infringed US patent numbers 6,892,074; 8,902,770; 8,254,872; and 9,037,129.
The patents relate to a variety of technologies used in mobile phones and tablets including the ability to make emergency calls when the phone is locked.
Yesterday’s dismissal also stated that CCE’s suit against Apple, AT&T and Verizon will be dismissed with prejudice.
Financial elements of the dismissal were not disclosed.
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