A Korean Company by the name of Porto Technology Co. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns the use of systems related to Apple Maps and specifically real-time traffic maps on Apple iDevices.

The Patents that Apple Allegedly Infringes

The first patent listed in this this lawsuit is U.S. Patent number 6,233,518 ("the '518 Patent") titled "Method and System for Providing an Image Vector-Based Traffic Information." The '518 Patent was duly issued on May 15, 2001. Porto Technology Co., LTD. is the exclusive licensee of the '518 Patent. The exclusive license, dated April 24, 2013, grants all substantial rights to Porto Technology Co., LTD.

The second patent in this lawsuit is noted as U.S. Patent number 6,532,413 ("the '413 Patent") titled "Method and Apparatus for Providing Time-Variant Geographical Information and a User Device Therefor."

The Complaint In-Part

Porto Technology's formal complaint states in-part that "Upon information and belief, Defendant [Apple] has been and is now infringing the '518 Patent in the State of Texas, in this judicial district, and elsewhere in the United States, by, among other things, directly or through intermediaries, making, using, importing, providing, supplying, distributing, selling, and/or offering for sale apparatuses and systems (including, without limitation, Apple Maps and other map apps on the iPhone or iPad products) that perform at least the method of providing an image-based traffic information in a region having at least one time-variant real entity, including converting said time-variant real entity into a time-variant image vector entity; generating an attribute-designating statement of the time-variant image vector entity based on a traffic information so as to form a traffic state map; converting a plurality of time-invariant real entities into a plurality of time-invariant image vector entities, wherein said plurality of time-invariant real entities are also included in the region; forming at least one basic map using said plurality of time-invariant image vector entities; forming a traffic information map which includes at least said traffic state map; transmitting said traffic information map to a user device via a communication network; displaying a first image in accordance with said basic map on a screen of the user device; and displaying a second image in accordance with said traffic state map, said second image being cumulatively displayed on the first image, covered by one or more claims of the '518 Patent to the injury of Porto. Defendant is directly infringing, literally infringing, and/or infringing the '518 Patent under the doctrine of equivalents."

Porto Technology is seeking a reasonable royalty for the alleged patent infringement.

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.

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