Apple wins over patent trolls economy

A patent troll wanted Apple to pay $300 million, but the judge dismissed the lawsuit and the plaintiff was forced to pay Apple.

Apple Electronics won the lawsuit against a so-called patent story that wanted to sue over an outdated $300 million patent. Bloomberg News reports. Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) is one of those companies that holds patents but has delayed filing them. This should mean that many companies are already using the technology based on these patents, and so can be sued at a profit. In the professional world, the procedure is known as the submarine tactic. PMC does nothing on its own, it only thrives on these patent lawsuits.

Specifically, it was a digital rights management patent dating back to 1981. In the appeal process, Judge Rodney Gelstrap decided that PMC should get “nothing” and also bear a portion of Apple’s legal costs. Submarine tactics have long been controversial in the United States. Since 1995, the registration deadline has been set at 20 years, and since then it is no longer useless to trolls.

In this particular case, Judge Gelstrap, referring to a ruling by the highest US patent court, found the conduct of PMCs to be a disproportionate delay and abuse of the patent system. PMC, which is headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, has dozens of patent infringement lawsuits pending and comparisons are accessed frequently. A lawsuit against Netflix is ​​still pending.

PMC sued Apple in 2015 and initially obtained the right in March of this year. A Texas court awarded the company $300 million in damages for the infringing patent. For now, Apple has announced that it will move to the next stage against the ruling. This has now been decided in favor of Apple. In a statement released by Apple at the time, it was said that such cases where companies do not manufacture or sell any products hinder innovation and ultimately harm consumers.