A whopping 9 out of 10 patent lawsuits filed against tech companies in the first half of 2015 were brought by NPEs (non-practicing enterprises, a.k.a patent trolls), a new report reveals.
Thanks to its status as the world’s most valuable company, Apple was the number one target of these attempted lawsuits — with the Eastern District of Texas being the favored location for patent trials on account of their tendency to side with trolls and award large sums of damages.
Photo: Unified Patents
Actavis, Amazon, HP and Mylan Pharmaceuticals were also regularly-named companies targeted by patent trolls. The number of NPE lawsuits increased by 11 percent since the previous year.
Fortunately there is some evidence things may be starting to turn around. Recently we’ve heard reports that the U.S. Senate has begun working on a possible patent law reform that would make it harder for trolls to extort money from proper practising companies.
Apple recently also had a $532.9 million damages award (in East Texas, natch!) recalculated because the judge admitted that jurors may have been confused about how to properly work out royalties. Apple’s lawyers had argued that jurors were unable to distinguish between patented and unpatented features.
Apple has previously argued that NPEs make no products, employee few or no people, create no jobs, and exploit the U.S. patent system to seek royalties for technology invented, most often, by Apple.
An overhaul of the system is desperately needed!
Source: Unified Patents
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Apple’s pile of money is patent trolls’ favorite target”
Considering how much Apple liked to sue for ridiculous ‘patents’ in the past, this might be karma catching up with them.
Except that Apple is a practicing entity. It is not a patent troll. And Apple has every right in the world to protect itself in court.
Right to defend itself, yes. But that wasn’t really what was happening in the beginning, for the most part. It also didn’t do much good for them, honestly. That’s why they have mostly stopped doing it.
Didn’t do much good ? In a “real” patent lawsuit the goal is NOT finical reparation or banishing infringing products. These are means, not goals. The real goal is to force your competitor increasing costs, or reducing functionality, on their whole product lines, thus weaken their competitiveness on the market. That’s the whole plot of the patent system.
It’s not Karma, it’s doing business.
Patents are a nasty business. They’re designed to protect innovators who have ideas to allow them to produce their idea before anyone else (or sell the idea to someone else to produce).
NPEs, like this company, are like Campers in multiplayer games – they hold no value in the game, found a way to exploit the system for their own pleasure. Everybody hates them but they’re technically not doing anything against the rules.
I understand the sueing between companies that produce (Apple vs. Samsung) because at very least they’re producing products and they want to protect their intellectual property (if we think it’s silly or not). These companies are a cancer on society and need to be expunged.
Karma would be Microsoft suing Apple for something – two companies that produce and an innovation that exists on both products.
When will the court in Texas be shut down? I don’t understand why this court hasn’t been dealt with by now and someone isn’t pushing for a law that says if you don’t use the patent in say seven years, it is no longer enforceable. And you cant sue until you use the patent in a product.