BackApple defeats patent claim over invention of smartphone
NetAirus' claim, that iPhone infringes its patent for a hand-held device that combines computer and wireless-communication functions, was rejected
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Los Angeles: Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable technology company, was found by a federal jury not to infringe the patent of a 70-year-old electrical engineer who claims he came up with the idea for the smartphone.
The jury in Los Angeles on Monday rejected the claim by NetAirus Technologies Llc, the company owned by inventor Richard Ditzik, that Apple’s iPhone infringes its patent for a hand-held device that combines computer and wireless- communication functions over both a Wi-Fi and cellular telephone network.
The trial was limited to damages NetAirus could seek for infringement by Apple’s iPhone 4 since October of last year, when the patent was recertified with changes in the language of the claims. NetAirus has filed a separate lawsuit for alleged patent infringement by the iPad and iPhone models that Apple started selling since the suit was filed in 2010.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, argued during the trial that Ditzik initially filed a patent application for a handset that used a laptop computer to make phone calls. The inventor revised the patent to include features, such as the handset functioning as a personal digital assistant and being able to send e-mail, that he had read about in magazines, Apple said.
The jury of six women and two men had been deadlocked, repeatedly sending notes to the judge over three days of deliberations saying they were unable to reach the unanimous verdict required on each of the five main questions on the verdict form regarding whether Apple had infringed on the patents and damages. The judge had sent them back to continue deliberations.
Majority vote
After jurors sent a note saying they were still deadlocked this morning, attorneys agreed to accept a majority vote, and sent them back to deliberate again. A majority of the panelists voted in favour of Apple on all four questions about the patent at issue. They didn’t reach the damages question.
Ditzik and his lawyer, Ray Niro of Chicago-based Niro Haller and Niro, said after the verdict they were disappointed with the outcome and are considering whether to appeal.
Attorneys for Apple declined to comment following the verdict.
Juror George Escarrega, 50, a salesman for a uniform rental company, who voted in favour of the inventor on two questions and for Apple on two others, said after the verdict he wanted to find some way to reward Ditzik.
Escarrega said he almost felt like we were failing in doing everything we could for the system and for the inventor, and that there was an aspect to the case that Apple was this giant crushing the little guy.
“Obviously, the giant has more resources than the little guy and the little guy needs somebody to fight for him," he said. “But it needs to be justified."
The instructions given to the jury were black and white that the patent had to match the claims, Escarrega said. “We all looked at it and we found it just didn’t."
The case is NetAirus Technologies Llc v. Apple Inc., 10-03257, US district court, central district of California (Los Angeles). BLOOMBERG
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