Yet another iPhone patent lawsuit
Nokia proxy puts Cupertino in the crosshairs, Redmond on the spot
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A Luxembourg company called Core Wireless has launched a patent lawsuit against Apple, claiming that its patents, which cover communication protocols, are breached by any device that uses 2G, 3G or 4G standards.
The suit, which was filed in the Eastern Texas District on February 29 before Justice Leonard Davis, is based on a portfolio of 2,000 patents assembled by Core Wireless from Nokia. Its lawsuit alleges infringement of eight of these patents, which Core Wireless says are “fundamental” to cellular technology.
Core Wireless is a patent hoarder. Last year, it was acquired by another hoarder, Mosaid Technologies, which itself was bought by Sterling Partners. The sale agreement allows the company to keep one-third of the income it generates from enforcing the patents, with the remainder returned to the original filers.
However, since the lawsuit covers basic cellular technologies, it probably raises an interesting issue for another company with an interest in the Nokia patents: Microsoft.
Although Mosaid’s acquisition announcement didn’t mention Redmond, while fending off a takeover attempt last year by Wi-LAN Inc, Mosaid named Microsoft as a royalty recipient in its deal with Nokia.
While Nokia has form in suing Apple – last June, Cupertino paid an undisclosed sum to settle a dispute running since 2009 – Microsoft has been trying to paint itself as a patent “good guy”.
In 2010, Microsoft asked a US court to slap Motorola for refusing FRAND (fair reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing for its patents. Last month, Redmond took its complaints to the European Commission.
However, even if the lawsuit isn’t welcome in Microsoft’s PR operation, it’s inevitable, since the terms on which Core Wireless holds the patents demand that it pursue them. Core Wireless isn’t only obliged to return two-thirds of what it reaps in lawsuits to Nokia and Microsoft: it’s also subject to performance requirements to keep the deal intact.
Microsoft has told The Register it has only a passive interest in Core Wireless.
“Last year, Nokia sold patents to Mosaid. We paid for a license to those patents. As part of that transaction, we also received a passive financial interest in future revenue generated by Mosaid from the licensing of those patents to others,” a Microsoft spokesperson told El Reg.®
COMMENTS
Things have taken an even more dangerous turn in recent years.
What we have seen develop over the last decade or so is a trade in patents as financial instruments independent of their original intention. In much the same way that we saw mortgages in the US market become traded as commodities that were to all practical intents and purposes independent of the original purpose of the loan, we now see patents traded in as financial papers. The result is that we have a sort of Frankenstein's monster of speculative buy and selling with no relation to the purpose. Patent law must be reformed and this spiv's market dismantled.
Re: Things have taken an even more dangerous turn in recent years.
I don't think trading is bad, the real problem is that at the moment most Patents are invalid as granted.
Of course we must remember that the original reason for patent law (not monopoly grant such as the East Indian Company) was to limit trade to the detriment of the people within the nation that the patent was granted. That is, Modern patent law was designed to limit competition for the benefit of the few at the cost of the many. I believe Adam Smith had something to say about that.
Same with copyright, can anyone explain why if i cure cancer i get to make money for 20 years before competition but if while curing cancer i make a file about it, you have to wait 100-200 years (remember i cured cancer) before you can copy it!
I guess what I'm saying is, you are wrong, trading is not bad, the idea that you can own an idea is bad. What's even worse is that if someone else comes up with the same idea and tries to implement it, they go to jail or get arse raped in court.
Microsoft has been trying to paint itself as a patent “good guy”.
Splutter.
How much more than the $5 per Android handset they extort would it be if they behaved otherwise?
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