Mixed ruling in Conversant v Apple case
A US appeals court has issued a mixed ruling for Apple in a patent case brought by Conversant Wireless Licensing, upholding one count of infringement but reversing another.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in its ruling on Thursday, August 16, affirmed that Apple’s products had infringed one patent claim directed to wireless communication. However, it dismissed another, similar, claim.
Licensing company Conversant, formerly called Core Wireless, had sued Apple for infringing two patents, US numbers 6,477,151 and 6,633,536, which are included in the company’s portfolio of more than 2,000 patents covering mobile communications networks.
In December 2016, a jury at the US District Court for the Northern District of California said Apple had infringed one claim in each patent and that neither claim was invalid. It ordered Apple to pay $7.3 million in damages.
On appeal, Apple disputed the rulings on infringement and validity, and also challenged the finding that the patent was not unenforceable.
The court affirmed the finding that claim 14 of the ‘151 patent had been infringed. It also upheld the decision that the claim was not invalid.
However, it asked the lower court to review its judgment that the patent was not unenforceable.
On the second patent (‘536), Apple disputed the earlier decision that it had infringed claim 19.
The Federal Circuit said it disagreed with Conversant’s theory of infringement, so it reversed the lower court’s ruling.
Conversant’s patent portfolio was originally filed by Nokia but was acquired from that company in 2011.
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