Patent trolls – companies that buy old patents purely to sue companies for claimed infringements – love to get their hands on very generic patents, as those give them the maximum number of possible targets. But Texas-based Corydoras Technologies LLC wins the prize for the dumbest claims yet against Apple. It is alleging, among other things, that the iPhone infringes its patents by making phone calls and sending emails …
Patently Apple reports that the company doesn’t stop there. It apparently thinks it owns the patent for ‘voice communication,’ so is including iPads in its claim.
Other features the company claims to own are sending & receiving emails wirelessly, having a front-facing camera, call-blocking and displaying a device’s geographic location. The company has also issued identical claims against Samsung.
The Corydoras Technologies lawsuit file with the court states in-part that “Apple’s Accused iPhones and Accused iPads are capable of voice communication. For example, the Accused iPhones are made and sold with the capability to be used in telephone calls and FaceTime Audio calls. By way of further example, the Accused iPads are made and sold with the capability to be used in FaceTime Audio calls.
In all, the lawsuit claims that 20 Apple products infringe on its patents: the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 5C, 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus and SE; and the iPad 2, iPad 3rd generation, iPad 4th generation, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPad mini 4. They seem to have forgotten to claim against Macs too …
The case will hopefully soon be laughed out of the Texas Eastern District Court in Anderson County.
Apple spoke out against patent trolls back in 2014, revealing that it had been targeted more than any other company.
