Patent trollin’: Apple sued for patent infringement involves its Secure Enclave

Another day, another lawsuit. Apple has been sued by “patent troll” Lionra Technologies LTD for patent infringement involving Apple’s Secure Enclave, reports Patently Apple.

The company claims Apple infringes HP patent 7,779,267 titled “Method And Apparatus For using a Secret in a Distributed Computing System.” Patently Apple says the patented invention has particular relevance to use of security tokens, for example smart cards, within distributed computing systems, and in particular to methods and apparatus for effective use of secrets retained within or provided by such security tokens.

Apple’s Secure Enclave is a hardware-based key manager that’s isolated from the main processor to provide an extra layer of security. The purpose of the Secure Enclave is to handle keys and other info such as biometrics that is sensitive enough to not be handled by the application processor.

By the way, 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.