Monday, December 9, 2013

Lawsuit against Apple’s Find my iPhone Ends

Case Filed: Aug 27, 2013
Case Closed: Dec 04, 2013
Court: Texas Eastern District Court
Judge: Rodney Gilstrap
Case Summary:
Apple was charged by Remote Locator Systems for infringing a patent US5548637 entitled ‘Method and apparatus for locating personnel and objects in response to telephone inquiries,’ which was originally issued to Alan C. Heller, Brian M. Evins and Robert G. Karp on Aug 20, 1996 and expired[i] on Sep 09, 2013. Remote Locate Systems was the last assignee[ii] of the patent (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).
The ‘637 patent in general relates to a method and apparatus for locating personnel and objects in response to telephone inquiries. The complaint said, Apple’s iOS features including Find My Friends and Find My iPhone applications infringe the claims’ of the ‘637 patent. The features allow a user to easily locate family and friends and their iOS devices.
The case is concluded as the parties filed motion for dismissal, in consideration of which, Court ordered all claims asserted against Apple dismissed with prejudice.  Attorneys’ fees and costs will be borne by the party that incurred them.
See 2:13-cv-00678 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.
Patent Term Estimator, use our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.





[i] 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.
[ii]  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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