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Apple wins lawsuit over expired pager patents, dubs opponent ‘patent troll’ in email

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Apple was accused of using patented technology originally created for this high-tech device

GPNE Corp, a Honolulu company that licenses technology patents, took Apple to court recently over a few patents the company claimed were violated in several of Apple’s iOS products. The technology in question was originally patented for pagers (remember those? yeah, me neither) and the patents have since expired.

Apple regularly takes on so-called “patent trolls” looking to profit from technology patents for widely used tech, but it’s not every day the company comes out and calls a spade a spade. In an email following the court victory today, an Apple spokeswoman dubbed GPNE a “patent troll.”

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, said in an e-mail after the verdict that GPNE is nothing more than a “patent troll” attempting to “extort money from Apple for 20-year-old pager patents that have expired, wasting time for everyone involved.”

Apple had previously been banned from using the term in the courtroom by judge Lucy Koh.

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Comments

  1. Kevin McGuire - 9 years ago

    Good for Apple. Maybe calling out those who try to extort money will lower the number of patent trolls.

  2. TechSHIZZLE.com - 9 years ago

    Apparently everything Koh could do to handicap Apple wasn’t enough to fool the jury.

    Maybe next time, Lucy.

    • gen0music - 9 years ago

      You think Koh works AGAINST Apple?

      There’s many states with many courts Apple could use, and there’s a reason why they always use Koh in thier home state.

  3. FYI, pagers are still commonly used in the medical field

  4. David Comidi - 9 years ago

    That was peanuts for apple i guess….. now others companies try to take advantage on extorting them…….. next…….

  5. Mac (@macasu) - 9 years ago

    Be nice if Apple started paying taxes in CA. State sure could use the help. Go Apple!