Apple said late yesterday that it has been sued by the Taiwanese semiconductor design company Via Technologies for patent infringement about the iPhone and the iPad. Lately there's been many patent infringement cases in the media, and it seems that some companies have just discovered a new way of making millions of dollars on the back of other high tech firms, something that Mark Cuban has recently discovered and is publicly voicing his frustration.
Microsoft is also on the same path, except that it's using a bit of a different method: "We can sell you some insurance that we won't sue you, but you have to give us some money in order that we won't sue you."
The patents involved, Via's complaint charges, are for technology used in microprocessors in Apple's iOS products that "generally provides efficient loading of data in the microprocessors."
Specifically, the three patents are 6,253,312 "Method and apparatus for double operand load", and 6,754,810, a continuation and refinement of the earlier 6,253,311 patent, both of which being entitled
"Instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data".
The lawsuit is joined by co-plaintiffs CenTaur Technology of Austin, Texas and IP-First LLC of Fremont, California, both subsidiaries of Via Technologies. The suit was filed in the Delaware U.S. District Court yesterday.
The "Accused Apple Products" named in the suit are the iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4 CDMA, fourth-generation iPod touch, and second-generation Apple TV-- in other words, just about every product that Apple makes these days!
The complaint requests that Apple be enjoined from importing any of these into the U.S. or for that matter, from manufacturing them in the United States.
The suit alleges that Apple's infringment be deemed "willful" – which would triple any damages that the court might award to VIA and its subsidiaries, should the court find in their favor. We predict some kind of a settlement soon.
Microsoft is also on the same path, except that it's using a bit of a different method: "We can sell you some insurance that we won't sue you, but you have to give us some money in order that we won't sue you."
The patents involved, Via's complaint charges, are for technology used in microprocessors in Apple's iOS products that "generally provides efficient loading of data in the microprocessors."
Specifically, the three patents are 6,253,312 "Method and apparatus for double operand load", and 6,754,810, a continuation and refinement of the earlier 6,253,311 patent, both of which being entitled
"Instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data".
The lawsuit is joined by co-plaintiffs CenTaur Technology of Austin, Texas and IP-First LLC of Fremont, California, both subsidiaries of Via Technologies. The suit was filed in the Delaware U.S. District Court yesterday.
The "Accused Apple Products" named in the suit are the iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4 CDMA, fourth-generation iPod touch, and second-generation Apple TV-- in other words, just about every product that Apple makes these days!
The complaint requests that Apple be enjoined from importing any of these into the U.S. or for that matter, from manufacturing them in the United States.
The suit alleges that Apple's infringment be deemed "willful" – which would triple any damages that the court might award to VIA and its subsidiaries, should the court find in their favor. We predict some kind of a settlement soon.
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