Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has another patent win under its belt now. The company has beaten the electrical engineer who claimed he is the one who created the idea for the iPhone. Bloomberg‘s Edvard Pettersson and Valerie Reitman report that a Los Angeles jury ruled against the claim brought by NetAirus Technologies.
Jury rules in favor of Apple again and again
NetAirus is owned by Richard L. Ditzik, an inventor who claimed that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) infringed upon his patent. The patent was for a combination device which offers both wireless communications and computing capabilities and functions over both a cellular network and Wi-Fi.
Last month a jury also favored Apple over Wi-Lan, a company which sued Apple for $248 million in royalties for a particular type of wireless technology which is used in mobile devices. The company also was awarded $290 million from Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) in a retrial on damages from an earlier patent infringement case which Apple won.
NetAirus continues to pursue Apple
The verdict from this recent claim made by NetAirus covered only damages which were from alleged infringement of the iPhone 4 since October 2012. At that time, Ditzik’s patent was recertified after he changed the language of his claims. The company has already filed another lawsuit alleging further patent infringement against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad and newer iPhone models which have been on sale since 2010, which was when the first lawsuit was filed by Ditzik’s firm.
Apple’s arguments
The basis of Apple’s argument against Ditzik this time was that his patent described a phone which made phone calls using a laptop computer. Then Apple said he revised the his patent to add more features which he had learned about from magazines, like the personal assistant app which Apple calls Siri and the ability to send email from the phone.
One juror who spoke to Bloomberg voted in Ditzik’s favor on two questions and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) on another two questions. He was actually more sympathetic to Ditzik’s case because he said he felt like Apple was just “this giant crushing the little guy.”
Jury troubled in reaching decision
The jury deliberated for three days, going back and forth over the five questions which would be included in the verdict. On Monday morning, the jury sent a note to the judge to say they were still at a standstill. At that time, the attorneys in the case said they would accept a vote of the majority and then sent the jury back into deliberations. Most of the jurors voted for Apple on all four of the questions, although they did not get into the section on damages.
Ditzik’s attorney said they were trying to decide whether to file an appeal in the case.
