NPE Withdraws Suit against Apple

Case Filed: Feb 21, 2013

Case Closed: Jul 16, 2013

Court: Texas Eastern District Court

Judge: Rodney Gilstrap

Case Summary:

Official complaint for patent infringement was filed by Elia Data of Texas against Apple claiming that their patent US7113996 was infringed, which describes a system for transporting and storing data on a network.  

The patent is entitled ‘Method and system for secured transport and storage of data on a network’, issued on Sep 26, 2006 and expires[i] by Jul 20, 2021. Elia Data is the current assignee[ii] of the patent (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). 

As per the complaint, plaintiff alleged that the infringing products/systems are designed and programmed to provide secure transport of packets between a first network node and a second network node in a manner described in the ‘996 patent. The accused products/systems include Remote Desktop, OS X Server and iCloud services. Plaintiff requested to enter:

1. judgment in favor that defendant has infringed the patent
2. permanent injunction enjoining the defendant from infringing its patent
3. damages, costs and expenses 

It appears that the parties have settled the case, as the patent holding company Elia Data filed voluntary dismissal. Upon consideration, the Court ordered all claims to be dismissed with prejudice, thereby concluding the case. 

Elia Data also sued Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and Citrix Systems asserting the same patent. See 2:13-cv-00147 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Are you looking for a tool to calculate patent terms? Try Patent Term Estimator, our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.  

 

---

[i] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[ii] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.