Apple, Burst.com legal battle still on
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 9, 2007 at 11:29am
Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the United States District Court, Northern California, has issued an order that invalidated as obvious or anticipated 14 claims in the patents in suit between Apple Computer and Burst.com. The order leaves 22 claims remaining, claims that the court did not find as invalid or anticipated.
In September Apple asked a judge to throw out patent infringement claims by Burst.com Inc., a software company that says Apple owes it millions in fees for using its patented technology in the iPod music player. Burst.com filed counterclaims in April 2006 accusing Apple of infringing four of Burst’s U.S. patents. In the counterclaims, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco on April 17, Burst alleges that Apple’s iTunes Music Store, iTunes software, the iPod devices, and Apple’s QuickTime Streaming products infringe Burst’s U.S. Patents 4,963,995; 5,995,705; 5,057,932 and 5,164,839. Burst’s filing responds to a suit that Apple filed against Burst in January 2006 seeking a declaration that Burst’s patents are invalid and that Apple doesn’t infringe on them.
“Burst.com approached Apple claiming that some of our products violate their patents. But we don’t agree,” an Apple spokeswoman said in a prepared statement in January 2006. “Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to resolve the disagreement with Burst directly. So we’ve asked the court to decide.”
Burst requested in its counterclaims that Apple pay a reasonable royalty for Apple’s infringing products and services, and also seeks an injunction against further infringement.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
