A lawsuit has been filed against Apple, accusing the company of infringing on certain patents pertaining to the Apple TV, Airport Express, and Macintosh personal computers.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday, by EZ4Media in Bannockburn, Illinois. The patents in question were obtained by EZ4Media (UEI) in March. They say that Apple hired three former UEI employees — “Nick Kalayjian, Bruce Edwards, and Wendy Goh” — nearly a year before unveiling the Apple TV.
“Each of these employees had access to UEI’s confidential and proprietary information and left UEI for Apple within 30 days of each other in the second quarter of 2005,” the complaint says. “Apple TV was commercially introduced in September 2006.” (via InformationWeek)
One of the former employees Nick Kalayjian, is now an engineering manager at Tesla Motors. He says when he held the position of senior hardware systems integrator at Apple, he wasn’t involved in the development of Apple TV.
As we know, the Mark Papermaster saga has gone on for a few months now, even though poaching talent from one company to another seems like fair game in the tech industry. Noncompete agreements tend to mean much less in the state of California, which also helps.
Read – FDC Filings & Dockets
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3 Comments to “Apple Sued Over Alleged Apple TV Patent Infringements”
So, ya know how Apple’s always said that patents are tricky because by the time they make it through, or by the time a patent dispute lawsuit gets to trial the said product is obsolete? Well, here’s a great example.
By the time this gets anywhere at all, or gains any traction at all, the Apple TV will probably have been updated, and may already be phased out of production. In which case this would not hold relevance at all.
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I just don’t think Apple will have to worry. There have been so many “Set-top” box lawsuits over the same old shit. This is just another attempt at exploiting the legal system. Bullshit.
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The attractive price-tag is just another way to get consumers into the store.
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