Finnish holdings firm MPH Technologies has filed a fresh lawsuit on Apple in federal court accusing the company of patent-infringing with products including iMessage and FaceTime. MPH Technologies attempted to license its IP to Apple in 2016. The lawsuit is being filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The firm filed the lawsuit asserting eight patents relating to secure messaging solutions, targeting existing Apple software and services. This specially infringes on IP related to sending and forwarding messages over a secure connection. The lawsuit includes iMessage, FaceTime and Apple’s always-on VPN feature, the latter being a mobile device management (MDM) solution marketed to corporations and educational institutions.
According to MPH, Apple has implemented the protected tech in devices running macOS, iOS and watchOS without authorization. MPH claims that it has informed Apple about the patent infringement in a series of emails back in July 2016, this lead to a telephonic conversation with Apple’s patent acquisitions executive. This later is followed by a letter in October 2016 detailing the applicability of MPH’s patents and introduced Apple to a pending patent that was later granted.
Months after reviewing MPH’s documents, Apple sent a letter containing conclusory statements, saying it did not “believe a license is required, as the asserted patents are not infringed and/or invalid as MPH appears to be interpreting the claims.” MPH and Apple representatives proceeded with the matter further leading to multiple teleconference sessions in May 2017 regarding a potential licensing agreement.
Apple counsel in one of these telephonic conversations said that the company was preparing an analysis of MPH’s patents demonstrating the IP was invalid based on prior art. However, the analysis was never delivered.
The direct communications between the two companies seemingly ended in July 2017, with MPH notifying Apple of two patent grants and Apple acknowledging the message with a brief reply.
Again in July, patent risk management entity RPX, of which Apple was an early member, reached out to MPH to discuss the issue. MPH believes the move was “on behalf of and for the benefit of Apple,” but fails to provide evidence of the tech giant’s involvement. Cut to the chase, MPH seeks undetermined compensation for infringement and a permanent injunction that will further prohibit the use of the eight patents.