When you’re a company with the kind of bank that Apple has, it’s no wonder that you’d be a target for patent trolls.
Well, it seems that the trolls are out from under their bridge again, because Secure Web Conference Corporation based out of Melville, New York has filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, claiming that its FaceTime technology (and the hardware it’s currently running on) infringes on an earlier patent.
The patent in question is one relating to portable telecommunication devices — more specifically concerning microprocessor-based devices which offer secure peer-to-peer communication to other devices over a network.
The Apple devices supposedly infringing Secure Web Conference Corporation’s patents include (ahem) all Macintosh computers with Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and Mac OS X v 10.6.6, iPhone models with A7 or A8 processors running iOS 7, and all cellular-enabled iPad models with an A7 or A8 processor and iOS 7.
Patently Apple points out that Secure Web Conference Corp. is described as a company which acquires, enforces and makes money from patents. Currently no judge has been assigned to the case.
Earlier this year it was reported that Apple had teamed up with the likes of IBM and Microsoft to form a U.S. lobbying supergroup to fight patent trolls and help push new legislation through congress.
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.
One response to “Patent troll threatens Apple with court action over FaceTime”
This will be thrown out fairly quickly.