- Rembrandt Wireless Technologies has sued Apple in the US Eastern Texas district court over some Bluetooth patents.
- The same patent troll had won $11 million from Samsung recently and is now targeting the Cupertino tech giant.
- The lawsuit filed by Rembrandt targets almost all of Apple’s products released in recent years that come with Bluetooth 2.0 or later.
Rembrandt Wireless Technologies is a Pennsylvania based company that is suing Apple over two Bluetooth-related patents. The company has alleged that Apple products that come with Bluetooth 2.0 or newer with EDR support infringe on U.S. Patent Nos. 8,457,228 and 8,023,580.
EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) is a Bluetooth technology that is used in most modern-day devices to enhance Bluetooth data transfer speeds. The patents owned by Rembrandt covers almost every EDR-supported Bluetooth device in existence. The same patents were used against Samsung by the known patent troll to collect $11 million legally from the Korean manufacturer.
Rembrandt’s statement reads “Upon information and belief, Apple has infringed directly and indirectly and continues to infringe directly and indirectly claim 21 of the ‘228 Patent. The infringing acts include, but are not limited to, the manufacture, use, sale, importation, exportation, and/or offer for sale of products practicing any of the following Bluetooth specifications that support Enhanced Data Rate (“EDR”)”, which means that hundreds of millions of devices from Apple have infringed the two above-mentioned patents.
Both the patents expired on December 4, 2018, and Rembrandt is by no means the original assignee of either patent. However, the patent troll demanded damages prior to the expiry of the patents which makes their case completely valid in court. An amount needs to be proven in the trial if Rembrandt is to be compensated for their “losses.”
In the recently concluded lawsuit against Samsung, the jury had calculated damages that were to be paid to Rembrandt as 5.5 cents per infringing device which amounted to $11 million. If Rembrandt is successful, it will receive several million dollars from Apple as well. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap is in charge of the trial who also presided the trial against Samsung.
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