Patent trollin’: Apple removes itself from an antitrust suit against Fortress

Apple has removed itself from an antitrust suit against Fortress, reports Foss Patents. Fortress is, in my opinion, a “patent troll.”

“For Apple, the key benefit from this strategic retreat is that it’s now consistently an antitrust defendant that argues intellectual property right holders should not be restricted in how they exploit their assets,” writes for Foss Patents. That’s what we heard from Apple’s lead counsel toward the end of the recent Epic Games v. Apple closing arguments. In that case, Apple attempts to draw an analogy to FTC v. Qualcomm, as does Fortress in the case from which Apple is now dropping out.

Fortress is a company backed by SoftBank. Apple and Intel claim the group stockpiled patents to hold up tech firms with lawsuits demanding as much as $5.1 billion. Apple’s withdrawal leaves Intel alone in its fight against Fortress.

The tech giants allege that Fortress and firms it either owned or whose patent portfolios it effectively controlled – and which do no make any technology products – stockpiled patents for the primary purpose of suing technology companies and did so in a manner that violated U.S. antitrust laws. Some folks would consider Fortress a “patent troll.”

“Apple has suffered economic harm in the form of litigation costs and diversion of resources away from innovation to respond to these entities’ serial nuisance suits,” Apple wrote in the complaint.

Apple and Intel allege that Fortress and firms it either owned or whose patent portfolios it effectively controlled – and which do no make any technology products – stockpiled patents for the primary purpose of suing technology companies and did so in a manner that violated U.S. antitrust laws.

In January a California federal judge tossed Apple and Intel’s suit claiming Fortress Investment Group is orchestrating an anti-competitive patent aggregation scheme for a second time but will allow the tech giants to retry some claims in another amended complaint.