apple's logo for its products should be 'We've Always Been Shameless About Stealing Great Ideas' (Steve Jobs)
I would like to see apple been punished by its bad attitude towards others' innovations...
Patent troll hits Apple with $2 billion suit. Trial starts next week.
FORTUNE — Apple AAPL0.49% is scheduled to appear in a German courtroom next Tuesday to defend itself against a patent infringement damages claim of1.57 billion euros ($2.12 billion).
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It’s not the world’s biggest infringement claim, but it’s in the ball park.
FORTUNE — Apple AAPL0.49% is scheduled to appear in a German courtroom next Tuesday to defend itself against a patent infringement damages claim of1.57 billion euros ($2.12 billion).
That wouldn’t be a record. The largest intellectual property damages award so far was the $2.15 billion Pfizer paid a couple competitors last year over a gastric reflux patent.
But this isn’t a suit between competitors. It was filed byIPCom, a so-called patent assertion entity that has amassed a portfolio of 1,200 patents and is aggressively trying to monetize them — either through license or litigation.
According to IPCom, the $2-billion patent relates to the way handsets are allowed to access networks of different mobile telecommunications providers. The technology can be used to give some users priority access to networks in emergencies, even if the networks are overloaded. The patent was awarded to Robert Bosch — a German automotive-parts company that helped pioneer car phones — and purchased by IPCom in 2007.
..Apple, Nokia NOK-0.64%, HTC, Vodafone VOD and Ericsson ERIC0.49% have tried and failed to get the patent ruled invalid, and now IPCom has starting suing the companies in the famous Mannheim Regional Court — where more patent infringement suits have been adjudicated that in any other courthouse in the world.
..In this case, Apple plays the victim of a patent troll. But Apple’s hands are no longer entirely clean.
...There’s one difference, however. The IPCom patents in the Mannheim case are so-called standards essential patents (SEPs), which must be licensed to competitors under terms that are fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND). The Nortel patents in the Texas suit, as near as I can tell, are not.
(https://fortune.com/2014/02/05/patent-troll-hits-apple-with-2-billion-suit-trial-starts-next-week/)