Network-1 announced on Friday that Apple will pay $25 million to end litigation over the alleged violation of US Patent 6,006,227 for a “Document Streaming Operating System”, IP that was bought by Network-1 from Mirror World Technologies.
Apple will in return receive a paid non-exclusive license to use technology from the patent, as well as other patents owned by Network-1.
The $25 million deal comes after years of court battles dating to 2008, when Mirror Worlds first filed suit in the Eastern District Court of Texas against Apple for infringing on four patents. The complaint used patents that described streams of information in a computer system, embodiments of which are similar to Apple’s Cover Flow and Time Machine.
The patent in question was invented by Yale professor David Gelernter, whose work was then continued by student Eric Freeman before it was granted in 1999. Gelertner’s research into “lifestreaming” tech dates back to the 1990s and is said to be similar to certain Apple products. Network-1 bought Mirror Worlds’ portfolio with the nine granted patents and five applications in 2013.
An initial jury trial resulted in a $625 million judgement against Apple in 2010 but the company appealed the ruling successfully 6 months later. The settlement this week relates to a single patent from the original complaint.
SOURCE: AppleInsider.
Larry Banks is a keen follower of technology and finance. He has worked for a variety of online publications, writing about a diverse range of topics including mobile networks, patents, and Internet video delivery technologies.
