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12 December 2017Patents

Apple hits back at Native American tribes with PTAB filing

Apple has hit back at a company owned by three Native American tribes by filing an application for inter partes review (IPR) at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

In March, Texas-based Prowire sued Apple in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, accusing it of infringing US patent number 6,137,390 through the iPad 4.

The patent, called “Inductors with minimised EMI effect and the method of manufacturing the same”, relates to an electronic circuit component called an inductor.

But in August, Prowire transferred the patent to MEC Resources, a North Dakota company owned by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, three Native American tribes which are also known as the  Three Affiliated Tribes.

Shortly after, the case was transferred to the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Apple responded on Friday, December 8, by filing an application for IPR of patent ‘390, challenging claims 1-14 and 16-20.

It’s possible that this dispute may become the second one to deal with sovereign immunity granted to Native American tribes, if that defence is raised in these proceedings.

In September, a patent deal between Allergan and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe hit the headlines.

The tribe acquired dry eye treatment Restasis (cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion) from Allergan, which paid it $13.75 million.

In October, the tribe filed a motion to dismiss IPRs filed by Mylan against the drug, based on the tribe’s sovereign immunity from IPR challenges.

Sister site LSIPR spoke to lawyers to assess whether the deal was a stroke of a genius or a misuse of sovereign immunity.

What is clear though, is that the deal sparked controversy.

The House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on IP called a hearing on the issue of IP rights being owned by entities that claim sovereign immunity.

LSIPR covered testimony provided by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and four experts on patent law here.

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