The multibillionaire leading technology giant of the World Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has developed a reputation of getting involved in lawsuit battles – a habit that has become frequent in the past 3 years.
Since 2011 Apple Inc and another leading technology giant Samsung have been filing lawsuits against each other. A total of 40 lawsuits have been filed by both companies in and abroad the country including France, Britain, Spain and Germany, which has been an economic disaster for both of them. The strategic managements of both companies have now reached a pact declaring not to file anymore lawsuits outside of United States in any other foreign country. The move appears to be really smart and will save millions of dollars for both companies.
However Apple Inc just got involved in a new recent lawsuit filing with a company that manufactures pagers for kids. The news seems pretty funny to some analysts but it is actually costing Apple Inc millions of dollars.
The technology firm, which is not very famous now a days but was very popular back in the 1990’s, holds licenses and patents for various telecommunicating technologies and has filed a lawsuit against the technology giant Apple Inc for illegally using the Skytel two way pager technologies in Apple Inc phones and other devices. According to the company these technologies were patented and owned by MTel. The Jury on Monday found Apple Inc guilty as several of Apple’s devices were illegally using patented and licensed technologies related to pagers and ordered Apple Inc to pay a heavy fine of $23.6 Millions to the Texas based technology company MTel.
This is the second trial of its kind faced by Apple, which accuses the company of unlawfully using the pager technologies. However Apple Inc escaped the first one that was filed last month in California.
According to MTel it only got a tenth of what it deserved for the Skytel and hoped to get more from Apple Inc. But Jury’s decision is based strictly on the fact that the patents were issued during the end of 1990’s and many of them either recently expired or are going to expire shortly.
According to Bloomberg the 2way pager Sktytel technology during the 90s was the smartphone and an advanced computing device of its day, and MTel deserves more than what Jury has decided for it. Mtel is considered the pioneer of on air wireless messaging technology and holds the flagship of its exclusive 2way Skytel technology. The Chief Executive Officer Andrew Fitton of United Wireless Technology acknowledges the work of Skynet 2 way pager technology and says that it was way ahead of its time.
On the other side Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has clearly denied any violation of patent rights and refuses to acknowledge any contribution by the Mtel’s Skytel technology. The company considers the Jury’s decision as unfair one and is planning to make its next move very carefully. According to Brian Ferguson, Apple’s lawyer, he did his best to convince the Jury that Mtel was only entitled to receive $1million.
