WiLAN sues Apple over wireless technologies
Canadian IP licensing company WiLAN has filed lawsuits against Apple in Texas and Florida District Courts alleging infringement of wireless technology patents it claims are used in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3.
WiLAN is the first company to sue the technology giant over its latest products, which employ LTE technologies to allow users to share high-speed data wirelessly on tablets and smartphones.
The first lawsuit relates to 3G HSPA (high speed packet access) handset products, while the second concerns two patents relating to LTE technologies.
The second complaint alleges that the “Defendant directly or indirectly through subsidiaries or affiliated companies markets, distributes, manufactures, imports, sells, and/or offers for sale wireless communication products, including but not limited to products compliant with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project – Long Term Evolution ... standard.”
WiLAN is an IP licensing company that specialises in wireless telecommunication technologies. In a statement on its website, Ken Stanwood has been named as inventor of two of the patents. Stanwood is the head of WiLAN’s LTE-focused research and development subsidiary.
This is not the first time WiLAN has launched a lawsuit against Apple for patent infringement. In 2011 it sued over patents related to LTE and Wi-Fi.
David Elkins, a partner from Squire Sanders in San Francisco, commented: “Apple already is fighting dozens of patent infringement cases, many of them brought by patent assertion entities. It has – and will use – ample resources with which to defend itself.”
WiLAN has a portfolio of more than 3,000 issued and pending patents, licensed by more than 260 companies. Generating revenue through licensing is WiLAN’s business model, Elkins said.
“The company has invested in the development of a large patent portfolio that it contends covers many different aspects of various wireless technology. But the model requires enforcing patents through litigation, which is expensive.
“WiLAN reported last month that its fiscal third quarter revenue was down $7.3 million compared to 2011. Litigation expenses for the same quarter, meanwhile, were $7.1 million compared to $1.2 million during the third quarter of 2011. In other words, litigation activity is a key to WiLAN’s model and will continue to be so.”
Apple declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Samsung lawyers are fighting against the San Jose jury verdict that damages of $1.05bn (£625m) must be paid to Apple for patent infringements, asserting that the figure was miscalculated.
