Another day, another lawsuit. As noted by AppleInsider, a non-practicing entity (in other words, a “patent troll”) has taken control of a collection of patents from defunct device maker Jawbone and is now leveraging a cache of audio-related IP against Apple.
About the lawsuits
Lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on Thursday, the complaint from Jawbone Innovations, the current owner of Jawbone’s patents, claims Apple devices infringe on intellectual property related to audio technologies. The patents involve methods of performing noise cancellation through hardware and software, detecting voiced and unvoiced speech, creating virtual microphone array and deploying multi-microphone beamforming arrays.
What’s a patent troll?
A patent holding company exists to hold patents on behalf of one or more other companies but does not necessarily manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents held. Many folks, like me, consider such companies to be patent trolls.
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.
