Though it won a patent suit against Apple to the tune of $533 million just yesterday, Smartflash LLC is suing the company yet again. The suit involves the very same patents involved in the previous trial, but as applied to devices introduced after the original case started. Additionally, the case alleges that Apple has infringed on four other patents not included in the previous trial.
From Reuters:
Smartflash LLC aims to make Apple pay for using the patent licensing firm’s technology without permission in devices not be included in the previous case, such as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2. The trial covered older Apple devices.
The new suit was filed Wednesday evening after it was decided Apple would have to pay Smartflash $533 million for violating the patents in question from the previous case. Smartflash’s attorney, Brad Caldwell, expressed confidence in the most recent litigation in comments to Reuters:
Apple cannot claim they don’t know about these patents or understand that they are infringing. A diligent jury has already rejected those arguments.
However, Apple already plans to appeal yesterday’s decision amid calls for reform to the patent system. In a report from Bloomberg yesterday, Kristin Huguet, an Apple Spokeswoman, pointed out the problems in the current system which allow companies like Smartflash to pursue such cases:
Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented. We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.
As we noted yesterday, Smartflash is also pursuing a separate case against Apple rival Samsung, and is currently embroiled in a suit against Google.
Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg