A court of Appeals ruling in Florida’s District Court said three earlier negative rulings on patents Wilan (WIN.T) holds should not have been found, paving the way for the patent troll technology innovator to move forward with a court case against cellphone maker Ericsson.
The ruling overturns a Florida District Court decision from May 2015, which granted Ericsson’s summary judgment on the three patents at issue.
In a decision released yesterday the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the Florida District Court’s negative rulings on the three patents at issue and found that the 8,229,437 patent should not have been found invalid and the 8,027,298 and 8,249,014 patents should not have been found non-infringed because there are material disputes of fact.
The Court of Appeals also affirmed the Florida District Court’s ruling that Ericsson was not entitled to most favoured licensee treatment on the three patents at issue based on a 2007 Agreement between WiLAN and Ericsson.
Wilan describes itself as “one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the world” and says it “helps companies unlock the value of intellectual property by managing and licensing their patent portfolios.”
Which is a nice way of saying they buy patents on the cheap and sue the crap out of anyone within a hair of said patents until those sued agree to cough up licensing fees to get out of expensive lawsuits.
Earlier this week, the company announced it would move forward with six patent lawsuits against large companies it says infringe on its IP by using Apple’s Siri. The targets include Amazon and HTC. Acer, ASUS, Dell, Toshiba, and HP all settled earlier lawsuits filed under the same claims.
The claims stem from the fact that Siri Inc, which Apple bought to develop it’s Siri service, had a license to use the tech from its originator, which Wilan swallowed a while back. When Apple further developed the tool, Wilan says it, and subsequent users, betrayed the patent.
Expect your own personal lawsuit when they’ve run out of companies to tag.
— Chris Parry