Personal Audio's second suit against Apple denied
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Personal Audio's second suit against Apple denied

Posted by Unknown at 3:51 AM Labels: ,
By cNET

Personal Audio, the company that was awarded $8 million in damages from Apple in patent infringement ruling last month, has had its attempt at additional damages denied by a U.S. District judge. 

In a judgment filed over the weekend, and picked up by the Courthouse News Service today, U.S. District Judge Ron Clark said there will not be a second trial to cover patent infringement issues with the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad since the previous case judgment covered both past and future use of Personal Audio's technology. 

"In light of the history of this case, the court finds no unfairness in entering judgment on the jury's verdict, which represents a lump sum award giving Apple a fully paid up license to the patents-in-suit, covering all past and future use of the patented technology in Apple products," Clark wrote in the filing (PDF). 

In its suit filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Personal Audio alleged that Apple's sixth-generation iPod Nano, fourth-generation iPod Shuffle, fourth-generation iPod Touch, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 all infringe on the company's patented audio technology. Personal Audio sought additional damages for this group of products, which were not included in its first lawsuit. 

"Personal Audio could, and should, have raised this issue at the time the decision to bifurcate was made, or at the very least offered evidence on the iOS products prior to closing," Clark said. 

Personal Audio is a nonpracticing entity--meaning it licenses patents but doesn't actually have any other business. The group filed its first case back in 2009 seeking $84 million in damages, alleging that Apple was violating two of its patents: US patent No. 6,199,076, "Audio program player including a dynamic program selection controller" and No. 7,509,178, "Audio program distribution and playback system." Last month's follow-up suit targeted Apple for infringing on just the '076 patent. 

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