Apple has fended off a challenge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to a largely favorable ruling from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which had invalidated parts of a patent that Uniloc had accused Apple of infringing with its FaceTime technology, reports Reuters.
Circuit Judge William Bryson, writing for a three-judge panel on Wednesday, rejected Uniloc’s attempt to revive parts of the patent as well as Apple’s request to cancel others based on an earlier patent that disclosed a similar system. Uniloc’s lawsuit claims the tech giant violated a patent it owns for a “system and method for network based policy enforcement of intelligent-client features.”
Uniloc, an Australia-based company that I consider a “patent troll,” has sued Apple numerous times on dubious claims. A “patent troll” is an individual or an organization that purchases and holds patents for unscrupulous purposes such as stifling competition or launching patent infringement suits. In legal terms, a patent troll is a type of non-practicing entity: someone who holds a patent but is not involved in the design or manufacture of any product or process associated with that patent.
