Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Apple, e.Digital Resolve Patent Dispute over Data Storage Device

Case Filed: Apr 01, 2013

Case Closed: Dec 19, 2013

Court: California Southern District Court

Judge: Dana M. Sabraw

Case Summary:
e.Digital, a San Diego based company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The company alleged that most of Apple's products infringe upon three of their patents regarding Flash-R technologies used in smartphones, tablets and other computers.
The patents in question were:
  •         US5491774 entitled Handheld record and playback device with flash memory issued on  Feb 1996 and expiring* by Apr 19, 2014
  •         US5742737 entitled Method for recording voice messages on flash memory in a hand held recorder issued on Apr 21, 1998 and expiring* by Apr 19, 2014
  •         US5842170 entitled Method for editing in hand held recorder issued on Nov 24, 1998 and expiring* by Nov 14, 2014
The patents are currently assigned+ to e.Digital (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The complaint alleged that Apple manufactures products including iPhone, iPad (excluding the first generation), iPod Touch (excluding the first generation), MacBook Pro and MacBook Air series of computers that infringe on their patents covering the use of flash memory technologies.

In Sep 30, e.Digital filed joint motion for entry of stipulated partial judgment after which Court entered stipulated partial judgment of non-infringement  in favor of Apple on e.Digital's claim for infringement of independent claims 33 and 34 and dependent claims 2, 10, 15 and 23 of the '774 patent.

Later, parties filed joint motion for voluntary dismissal and the Court ordered all claims against Apple be dismissed with prejudice and all counterclaims against e.Digital be dismissed without prejudice. It was further ordered all attorneys' fees, costs and expenses to be borne by each party.

See 3:13-cv-00785 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

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

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