SAN JOSE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A federal jury this week found in favor of Apple Inc. in a patent infringement lawsuit filed against the electronics giant by a Hawaii-based non-practicing entity.
GPNE Corp., headquartered in Honolulu, sued Apple in 2012, alleging Apple used its mobile device technology in the iPhone, iPad and iPad mini.
GPNE reportedly was seeking more than $90 million in damages for Apple’s alleged use of its technology — a system of communicating across cellular networks, first used in pagers.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California jury disagreed with GPNE and ruled in favor of Apple Wednesday. Apple argued at trial that it doesn’t make or sell pagers.
Apple could not immediately be reached for comment on the verdict.
Kalpana Srinivasan, a partner at Susman Godfrey LLP, which represented GPNE, said in an email Friday that she strongly believes the judge will address the “underlying legal issues” in post-verdict motions.
“It was a hard-fought trial with a tough claim construction in a case in which our firm was hired a few months ago,” she said, adding that GPNE invented the technology it sought to protect at trial.
The primary inventor, Gabriel Wong, is the chairman of GPNE’s Board of Directors. Wong earned an electrical engineering degree from New York University in the 1960s and worked for telecommunications companies as an engineer.
“He came up with the invention that is the subject of the patents and attempted to commercialize it, as Apple recognized at trial,” Srinivasan said.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at patents@legalnewsline.com.