A federal jury has found that the Apple iPhone infringes on three patents held by MobileMedia Ideas, a patent licensing firm owned by Sony, MPEG-LA and Nokia.
Jurors deliberated for about four hours on Thursday before ruling that Apple misappropriated patents covering call handling, call rejection and the camera. MobileMedia filed suit in 2010, arguing Apple ripped off 14 patents; the case went to trial in Wilmington, Delaware after the number of patents was cut to three.
"We’re pleased that the court found infringement on all three patents and we think it’s justified," a MobileMedia Ideas spokesman told Wired. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson has not yet scheduled a hearing to determine the damages to be paid, but MobileMedia CEO Larry Horn said the amount could be "substantial."
MobileMedia, launched in January 2010, is a "patent portfolio licensor of inventions." It owns more than 300 patents, primarily from Nokia and Sony. The holding company is owned by those two firms and MPEG-LA. Some might consider the company a patent troll, but patent expert Florian Mueller says not so fast.
"I wouldn't call MobileMedia Ideas a 'troll' because it monetizes patents on behalf of Nokia and Sony, which are definitely practicing and producing entities," he said. "It's a patent licensing and assertion entity and its patent portfolio relates to serious R&D."
MobileMedia argued in the suit that it would "irreparable injury” if Apple was not required to pay royalties for the patents. "We’re not in the litigation business” and just want to license the patents, Horn told Bloomberg.
Apple is knee deep in intellectual property battles in the United States and abroad. So far, Cupertino appears to be winning the Apple v. Samsung war, with a jury trial finding Samsung in violation of many of Apple's patents involved in the case and owing Apple over $1 billion in damages (an amount currently in flux as post trial rulings come into effect). Apple settled with HTC, another Android hardware manufacturer it had been litigating, with a confidential licensing deal.
The Cupertino company also has been involved in countless such lawsuits, including one in 2010 over wireless email delivery, its Numbers software, and GPS and voice technologies. Apple and MobileMedia will likely go into licensing negotiations in the near term.
