A German court dismissed a lawsuit against Apple on Friday that was brought on by a well-known patent troll. IPCom, a company that licenses patents, wanted $2.2 billion in damages for infringement of a feature that is now an industry standard. A similar case against HTC was also dismissed.
IPCom is about as much of a patent troll as a patent troll can be. According to The Verge, IPCom has over 1,200 mobile technology–related patents, most of them bought in 2007 from Robert Bosch GmbH, a German electronics company that had made car phones. According to Bloomberg, IPCom does not make any products and instead makes money from licensing its patents and from suing other companies.
This particular suit against Apple is exemplary of IPCom’s business model. It sued Apple for using a chip feature that would prioritize calls from police and rescue workers during an emergency. The judge dismissed this case and a similar one against HTC because this feature is now an industry standard.
After the ruling in the HTC case, the vendor’s attorney, Martin Chakraborty, said “IPCom’s story has come to an end.”
Unfortunately, this appears to not be the case, as IPCom’s managing director said his company plans to file an appeal.
