A few days ago, we commented on a series of lawsuits in which Apple was or is still involved. Among new and old cases, some companies simply cannot let go of the Cupertino giant's foot and, whenever they can, return with unpleasant new surprises for Ma.
This is the case Uniloc, an Australian security software company known from other springs from three other times, to be more specific. After suing Apple for the last time in 2016, the company again cited Cupertino's firm in a new patent infringement case, this time related to technology used in the AirDrop.
In the report sent to the Texas Court (in the United States), Uniloc stated that Apple infringed a patent registered for the first time in 2000, a decade before Ma launched the feature for iOS and macOS. The patent in question deals with a "method and system for authenticating electronic devices" and describes a secure environment for transferring data between nearby devices.
Introduced with OS X Lion 10.7 in 2011, AirDrop is a protocol designed to simplify the process of transferring files, originally from one Mac to another. The name was used later, in 2013, to describe a technology that allowed iOS devices to connect with each other and with Macs, precisely the one that Uniloc claimed to have been infringed.
Although it was created 18 years ago, the patent was only granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO) in 2006, after passing through the hands of several companies one of them was the Philips, but the majority was simply an aggregator of patents.
Despite being the current holder of the patent, Uniloc is not, therefore, the inventor of the technology in question, it put its hands on the patent only at the end of 2017. Nevertheless, the patent troll requested an (undisclosed) amount of damages from Apple, along with a refund of due legal fees.
As we said, the Australian company had already sued Ma at other times due to technologies used in Apple Maps, Apple ID, AirPlay and the Apple TV Remote application. It has also used other newly acquired patents to sue other technology giants, such as Microsoft, Sony, McAfee and SEGA.
via AppleInsider
