At least it's not some patent whore firm thats suing...
Apple will likely settle this one quickly. At least it's not another patent troll firm.
F it, why not sue every end user for a dollar per infringing device. You'd make hundreds of millions of dollars rather than just 75 mill. Go big or go home. Also, what took them so long? Is it just in the last year that devices started using the technology?
Let's put the blame for the current patent mess where it belongs: the Vietnam anti-war movement. The Mansfield Amendment(s) cut off the military from sponsoring basic research at universities also removing a key advocate of funding such basic research, destroying a consensus that had emerged only after World War II. The NSF that was supposed to replace basic research funding had no political base in Congress.
The solution was to change the patent system so that universities could hold patents developed from government funded research. Now such patents are part of each university's net worth, and the universities can go to their local Congressmen and tell them to not reform patent law too much in the direction of limiting rights for non-practicing entities.
Free iPads for all students and faculty.
Seriously, it's getting so complicated and time consuming to check anything and everything that goes into the manufacture of outsourced components, that I can see this happening. Even if they knew, they might have thought that this could slip under the radar. Suppliers sometimes even substitute components/processes without telling their customers, and hope this will not be detected. I recently read of a case where FOXCONN had allegedly done this with, I can't remember which, APPLE product line.
If this is legit, APPLE should settle this quickly.
Because Apple is selling an infringing product. The LCD manufactures could probably be sued too, but there is more profits if you consider the final assembled product value.
Apple's civil lawsuit department will need it's own spaceship campus soon!
As Tim Cook said, patents are broken the way they are now.
They're preventing technological evolvement and are being abused for bullsh* stuff like this, getting money from someone else.
They are also suing Amazon, Samsung, Seoul Semiconductor, and Epistar.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/patent-wielding-boston-u-seeks-ban-on-apple-amazon-samsung-products/
This doesn't make sense. Apple does not have a GaN foundry. In order to get GaN chips, they have to purchase them from outside. If there is a valid lawsuit, it would be with whichever foundry infringed on BU's process.
Patent law covers not only the manufacture and sale of the patented product, but their import as well. If, as I believe they do, Apple buys foreign-made panels and assembles the final product offshore, then Apple is infringing the patent by importing those devices with non-licensed patented display technology in them.
If Boston University gets some money out of this will it be dumped back into the school to lower tuition for students or into school buildings / programs? I know at other schools, it would most likely be stuffed into the pockets of the president, administrative faculty, board members, etc.
The amendment barred the Defense Department from using its funds "to carry out any research project or study unless such project or study has a direct and apparent relationship to a specific military function."
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Not seeing where Universities patenting research is all that big a deal. It shifts the funding burden to corporations and by definition, consumers, away from direct government funding. Isn't that what the public wants?
In all fairness, this appears to be a legitimate claim.