Apple is facing another lawsuit. The lawsuit has been filed by the same company it was forced to pay significant damages to just a few days ago. The techgiant was ordered to pay $533 million to Smartflash LLC last week, after the company said that their iTunes service used technologies they owned the patents for.
Now Smartflash wants compensation for products Apple launched after the start of the first case. The patents in question cover the technology used not only in iTunes but the Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus and iPad Air 2, whilst other documents mention other patents that it owns and accuses Apple of infringing.
Smartflash lawyer Brad Caldwell said: “Smartflash filed the complaint to address products that came out too far into the last proceedings to have been included”
Apple plan to appeal against the first ruling and have called for patent law to be reformed. However, it has not yet commented on the new lawsuit. Smartflash has also taken legal action against Amazon, Google and Samsung, who it says have also infringed their patents. Smartflash and similar firms who own patents but don’t make products themselves have been branded “patent trolls”. Samsung were recently ordered to pay $16 million to Rembrandt IP, whilst Symantec were forced to hand over $17 million to Intellectual Ventures.
Apple is apparently on the cusp of launching their long-awaited smartwatch.
