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1. STEC IP V APPLE
A Delaware based company by the name of STEC IP has launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple on Seven counts. The main focus of the infringement case surrounds Apple's iCloud and iTunes related services. The exception is one count that that claims that VPN Tunnels found in Apple's OS X Lion Server violates their patents. Notable in this case is the fact that five out of the seven patents presented in this case were originally granted to Symantec. In a way, the question really becomes, who's really suing Apple?  

 

The Alleged Patent Infringements

 

The following information provides you with a brief rundown of the patents that are being used in a new patent infringement case brought on by STEC IP against Apple Inc. Our report provides you with links and a quick Abstract to each patent. We also include a series of graphics which clearly present ownership of the original patents for your convenience.

 

Counts One, Two, Four, Five & Six

 

On Counts one, two, four, five and six of STEC's complaint, they're basically stating that Apple's iCloud, iTunes and/or Apple App Store infringe upon the claims of their patents 6,738,799, 7,032,089, 6,925,481, 7,254,621 and 6,963,908.

 

"The complaint specifically states that "Apple makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, and/or imports into the United States products and/or services that provide for data synchronization. On information and belief, at least some of data synchronization products and/or services provide synchronization using copy-on-read techniques."

 

Such products and/or services include, by way of example and without limitation, the Apple iCloud Service and products and/or services related thereto, which are covered by one or more claims."

 

Count Three

 

In count three some of the verbiage is a little more specific. The complaints states that "Apple operates one or more server farms (comprising, inter alia, servers and computers on a network) that are located in data centers in the United States. On information and belief, Apple's one or more server farms provide and support cloud computing services, including at least Apple iCloud and iTunes services. On information and belief, Apple makes and/or uses a system for monitoring the health of at least some of Apple's servers and computers over a network in its data centers."

 

Four Symantec Patents used in this Infringement Case

 

One of the notables in this case that stood out is that five out of the seven patents are from Symantec (four form Symantec + one from Veritas that is owned by Symantec) as noted below.

 

2. 4 Symantec patents used in patent infringement case against Apple

Count Seven

 

In Count Seven of STEC's patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, they present patent 5,825,891. The complaint specifically states that "Apple makes, uses, sells and/or offers for sale in the United States products and/or services that provide for or support establishing virtual private network ("VPN") tunnels, Mac OS X Lion Server.

 

On information and belief, Apple has infringed and continues to infringe the '891 patent by, among other things, using methods covered by one or more claims of the '891 patent. Such methods include, by way of example and without limitation, use of Mac OS X Lion Server, which is covered by one or more claims of the '891 patent, including but not limited to claim 1."

 

3. Patents from Veritas, Conner & Raptor used in Case Against Apple

 

The case was filed in the United States District Court for Delaware. No judge has been assigned as of yet. STEC IP is seeking a "reasonable royalty" in this case against Apple.

 

It should also be noted that GlobeNewswire is reporting that STEC IP has also recently filed suits against Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle.

 

Notice

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Comments

Who's Desperate? It actually looks very calculated to me and using Symnantec patents is sure to get the jury's interest. Symantec isn't a stupid company.

Desperate people do desperate things.

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