In September 2018 Patently Apple posted a report titled "A Finnish Patent Troll Sues Apple Claiming that iMessage and FaceTime infringe 8 of their (Acquired) Patents." In May 2023 we posted a follow-up report titled Apple's attempt to have key patent claims in the MPH Technologies Infringement case dismissed were denied by the Patent Appeals Board." Apple is continuing their fight against this lawsuit as laid out below.

In a report posted by Bloomberg Law earlier this month they note that "Apple Inc. asked a federal court in Delaware to force litigation funder Omni Bridgeway (USA) LLC to answer questions and provide documents relating to a California patent infringement case against the tech giant that’s now in its sixth year.

Omni is connected to Finnish patent owner MPH Technologies Oy’s 2018 suit accusing Apple of infringing patents with its iMessage and FaceTime products, Apple said in a July 3 court filing.

Apple subpoenaed Omni, a leading litigation finance firm, for information it had about the case in December 2023. A declaration from an Apple lawyer attached to its filing said lawyers for Apple and Omni met and conferred five times to negotiate Omni’s possible disclosure of information about the patent case but those talks went nowhere. “Omni has not produced any responsive documents” in response to Apple’s subpoena “nor offered any witness for a deposition,” Apple attorney Hannah Cannom wrote in the document.

Her declaration was part of a flurry of documents Apple filed in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. The company also sought permission to seal many of the filings, saying MPH told Apple’s lawyers that Omni was connected to the case but “disclosed that information as highly confidential.”

Omni didn’t deny its role in the suit in a January 2024 letter from lawyer Jen Kash to Cannom, in which the funder objected to the information requests. Kash wrote, however, that Apple’s initial subpoena “does not coherently state what information it seeks” and that Omni was “currently unable to respond.”

The $15.2 billion litigation finance industry, in which investors pool money into lawsuits in exchange for a portion of a successful award, has faced pressure from lawmakers seeking to mandate disclosure in cases involving outside funders. Nearly one-fifth of funders’ capital commitments go to patent litigation, according to a 2023 report from Westfleet Advisers. For more on this read the full report by Bloomberg Law.