Apple faces Boston University patent claims
Technology company Apple is facing claims that several of its products infringe a patent owned by Boston University.
The university, which has more than 33,000 students, has asserted a patent entitled “highly insulating monocrystalline gallium nitride thin films”, issued in 1997. It is owned by professor Theodore Moustakas but assigned to the university.
A complaint filed at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on July 2 claims that Apple’s smartphones, tablets and PCs including the iPhone 5, iPad and MacBook Air infringe the patent.
Apple’s products “include a gallium nitride thin film semiconductor device” claimed by Moustakas’s patent, the complaint says.
Gallium nitride is a chemical compound that is used in the production of semiconductors, notably light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The complaint continues: “Defendant’s acts of infringement have caused and will continue to cause substantial and irreparable damage to the university.”
Boston University wants a jury trial, Apple to compensate it with unspecified damages and the company to stop selling any products that allegedly infringe the patent.
According to the Boston Herald, which cites a source close to the Apple case, at least one company already licenses the disputed patent.
The university has filed eight claims against companies such as Samsung and Amazon over the patent. According to the Samsung complaint, a number of products including the Galaxy Tab 2 and Series 5 laptop have allegedly infringed it. There are further claims that Samsung has breached a patent called a “method of making a semiconductor device with exposure of sapphire substrate to activated nitrogen”.
At least one company targeted by Boston University, Taiwanese LED-maker Epistar, has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to reassess the patent’s validity under an inter partes review, filed in May this year.
Law firms McCarter & English LLP and Shore Chan DePumpo LLP are representing Boston University.
Apple said it does not comment on pending litigation, while Boston University did not respond to a request for comment.
