Patent firm hits Apple with $22.1M verdict over LTE patent

Enlarge (credit: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Acacia Research Corporation, the largest publicly traded patent-assertion entity, won a $22.1 million verdict against Apple last week.

A jury in the patent hotspot of East Texas found that Apple had infringed US Patent No. 8,055,820, owned by Acacia subsidiary Cellular Communications Equipment LLC. The patent describes a method of how cell phones can use “buffer status reporting” so that phone networks can optimize data usage. The patent originated at Nokia, which sold the patent to Acacia in 2013.

Acacia is in a controversial business that critics refer to as “patent trolling.” The firm buys patents from others, uses those patents to bring litigation, and then splits the proceeds with the original patent owner. The business model has made the company incredibly litigious, as dozens of Acacia-owned LLC’s have filed hundreds of lawsuits over the years.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Patent firm hits Apple with .1M verdict over LTE patent