By Chelsey Dulaney
Apple Inc. was ordered this week to pay $23.6 million in damages
after a Texas jury found that its devices used technology patented
in the 1990s by a pager company.
Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC filed a patent
infringement suit against Apple last year, alleging that a variety
of Apple's products--including iPhones and iPads that offer
services like messaging, meeting requests and shipping
notifications--infringed on several MTel patents covering messaging
technology. The patents were issued in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Daniel Scardino, an attorney who represented Mobile
Telecommunications in the case, said the company had sought about
10 times the amount of damages it was awarded. The jury sided
against MTel on a claim that Apple's emojis infringed on an MTel
patent.
MTel was a pioneer in wireless messaging in the 1990s, credited
with launching the first two-way wireless paging service, SkyTel
2-Way. Today, the company controls the patents of its entities,
while the SkyTel network is still used by emergency responders.
Mr. Scardino said the jury ruling was a nod to companies like
MTel, who decades ago developed wireless communication technology
that he says formed the basis for today's mobile technology, such
as iPhones.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Apple is no stranger to patent battles, including its fights
with Samsung Electronics Co., the $2 billion infringement suit
filed by German patent-holding firm IPCom GmbH early this year and
a patent-infringement suit brought last year by Intertrust
Technologies Corp. Intertrust, which is backed by Sony Corp. and
Royal Philips Electronics NV, agreed to settle the case this
spring.
In September, a federal appeals court threw out a $368 million
jury award for patent infringement that VirnetX Holding Corp. won
against Apple in 2012. VirnetX alleged in 2010 that Apple's
FaceTime and a feature related to virtual private networks
infringed the firm's patents.
The case was sent back to a trial court for reconsideration, as
VirnetX pursues another lawsuit that claims newer Apple devices
infringe the same patents.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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