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3 June 2016Patents

Apple succeeds in latest round of Smartflash lawsuit

Apple has succeeded in invalidating two patents directed to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

According to  reports, the USPTO invalidated two of three patents owned by licensing company Smartflash that Apple’s iTunes software had been deemed to infringe. Apple was fined $533 million.

A three judge panel found on Thursday, May 26, that the two patents “should never have been issued” in the first place because the idea of storing and paying for data is an “abstract concept”.

In February last year the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ordered Apple to pay the fine to Smartflash.

The damages were less than the $852 million sum that had originally been sought by the plaintiff.

Smartflash had sued Apple in May 2013, alleging that the California-based company’s iTunes software infringed patents directed to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.

Apple filed a counterclaim in July 2014 and argued that the patents were invalid.

During the trial Apple claimed that it did not infringe the patents and that earlier patented inventions covered the same technology.

But Judge Rodney Gilstrap dismissed the claims.

The latest ruling doesn’t end the case as Smartflash can file an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or ask the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to reconsider the decision.

Apple has also already disputed the validity of the patents at the Federal Circuit.

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