Most of the recent Apple-related legal news has been focused on the Cupertino firm's battle with Samsung, but today a different case is making headlines. According to Bloomberg, a U.S. court today ruled that Apple infringed upon three patents owned by MobileMedia Ideas, a firm whose website describes itself as "patent portfolio licensor of inventions" that are used by manufacturers of smartphones and other mobile devices. MobileMedia, which is jointly-owned by Sony, Nokia and MPEG-LA, says that it owns over 300 patents.
As revealed to Bloomberg by MobileMedia CEO Larry Horn and confirmed by The Verge, the patents that Apple has been found to be in violation of relate to call handling, call rejection and camera phones. The call handling patent is No. 6,070,068 and involves the options presented to a user (like hold and end call) during a call and continuing to display the options for the original call if a second one comes in. Second is the call rejection patent, which is No. 6,253,075 and covers the determination that a call should be rejected and transmitting that info to a transmitting station. Finally, the camera patent is No. 6,427,078 and relates to a phone with a camera, processor, the ability to accept user input and transfer an image.
As noted by CNET, Apple attempted to have this case tossed out over a patent related to screen rotation, but a judge opted to allow the case to proceed. MobileMedia originally filed its suit against Apple back in July 2010, when it alleged that Apple had violated 18 of its patents. Now that the decision has been handed down, MobileMedia is understandably pleased, with CEO Larry Horn stating that he thinks that the decision is "justified." Apple declined to offer a comment on the ruling.
Via @BloombergNews, Bloomberg, The Verge, CNET
