A patent troll by the name of Meraloc LLC has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple regarding the iPod's flash drive. Considering that this patent troll has only been in business for a little over a month, it was quite humorous to read Meraloc state that they've been damaged and continue to be damaged due to Apple's infringement of a patent that they've just acquired for the purposes of this suit. 

According to the Meraloc's complaint before the court, Apple's "products, such as the 'iPod Touch' (the "Accused Product"), includes a flash drive that can be removably connected to a computing device for storing files transferred from the computing device. For example, the Accused Product includes flash memory and can be removably connected to a computing device for storing files, such as photos or music, transferred from the computer using the iOS sync feature.

The Accused Product includes at least one flash memory chip operable to store files transmitted from the computing device. For example, the Accused Product includes a data storage device of up to 128GB of storage capacity.

The Accused Product includes a display operable to display information related to files stored on the at least one flash memory chip. For example, the Accused Product displays the names of music files stored on the device.

The Accused Product includes an input device, such as a touch screen display, operable for providing input for managing files stored on the flash drive. For example, a user can use touch inputs on the Accused Product's screen to delete music files or add them to specific playlists."

Meraloc alleges that Apple "has directly infringed and continues to directly infringe at least claims 1 and 5 of the 7,451,262 patent by making, using, importing, offering for sale, and/or selling the Accused Product through its website without authority in the United States, and will continue to do so unless enjoined by this Court."

The patent infringement case presented in today's report was filed in the Texas Eastern District Court. At present, no Judge has been assigned to the case.

last July we reported that Apple remained the number one target of patent trolls in 2015.

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