US trade body rejects S3 'Apple nicked our IP' claim
Early 'did infringe' ruling ruled out
Apple has not ridden roughshod over 3S Graphics' intellectual property rights, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has decided.
S3, a company owned by Taiwan's VIA that designs graphics chips, complained to the ITC in May 2010, claiming Apple's iDevices and Macs make use of technology it owns - and do so without its permission.
Said technology covers techniques for compressing data for transmission and decompressing the information upon receipt, and is enshrined in four US patents owned by S3.
In July 2011, an internal ITC review's preliminary findings were published: Apple had violated two of S3's patents.
After review, the case goes up to the ITC's main judicial panel, but its members this week decided that none of the four patents had been infringed by Apple.
In the light of the initial finding, S3 may yet appeal against the latest ruling.
Putting patent infringement cases to the ITC has become a common tactic in such battles. Judgements can come more quickly than redress through the court system, and a victory holds open the tantalising prospect - for the plaintiff - that the ITC will ban the infringing device from being imported into the US.
Apple is currently fighting off patent infringement claims from Motorola, Samsung and HTC, to name but three. ®
COMMENTS
Why am I not surprised?
Why am I not surprised? A non-US company loses a patent lawsuit with a US company in a US court. Do I detect bias here?
Surprise Surprise
Imagine that, the US find Apple innocent of patent infringement.
Seems like protectionism to me.
Nokia and Apple settle THEIR case in a licensing deal this year.
.
there = place: "over there"
their = belong: "it is their car"
they're = they are: "They're playing golf"
It's not fucking hard.
It seems they forgot
that Apple can't be done for infringing anyone's patents because it has the patent on patenting things, and therefore has the sole right to sue other businesses for patent infringement.
Apple does not nick stuff
Funny how the ITC is always on the side of the home teams.
