Apple fined $23m in latest patent tussle
Apple has been forced to fork out more than $23 million after it was found guilty of infringing six patents belonging to a Mississippi-based technology company.
The patents are owned by Mobile Telecommunications Technology (MTel), now a licensing arm of United Wireless, which co-owns SkyTel, a provider of wireless data and messaging services in the US.
MTel had originally sought $237 million from Apple but in the end had to settle for $23.6 million.
The patents at issue, US numbers 5,809,428; 5,754,946; 5,894,506; 5,590,403; 5,659,89;1 and 5,915,210, cover various aspects of the technology behind text messaging including storing undelivered texts and what is referred to as a “nationwide communication system”.
In the case, heard at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, MTel claimed some of Apple’s products including its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices used the technology.
Apple denied infringing the patents and said MTel was trying to take credit for emojis-- graphics that express emotion—and calendar invites, and that they did not cover new innovations.
Apple’s South Korean rival Samsung is also accused of infringing the patents. Jury selection in that case is scheduled for December 15 and it will take place in the same Texas court.
MTel has also targeted fellow smartphone makers HTC, ZTE and Blackberry.
Apple did not provide a comment on the case.
