Apple Ordered to Pay $23.6 Million for Using SkyTel Pager Technology Without Permission

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Posted November 18, 2014 at 6:03pm by iClarified

A judge has ordered Apple to pay $23.6 million to Mobile Telecommunications Technologies after a jury determined its iPhone and other devices used SkyTel pager technology from the 1990s without permission, reports Bloomberg.

Patents developed for the SkyTel network and owned by Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC are valid and were infringed by Apple, a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, said late yesterday. MTel, which got about a tenth of what it had been seeking in damages, claimed Apple’s Airport Wi-Fi products and iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices with messaging used the technology.

This is the second trial in which Apple has been accused of using pager technology without paying for it. It won the first case against a different company last month in California.

Mobile Telecommunications Technologies' patents date back to the mid-to-late-1990s and have nearly expired. At one point the SkyTel 2-Way paging system was on the forefront of technology. The company is now the licensing arm of United Wireless which co-owns the SkyTel network used by doctors and other first responders.

“The guys working back then at SkyTel were way ahead of their time,” said Andrew Fitton, chief executive officer of United Wireless. “This is vindication for all their work.”

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Apple Ordered to Pay $23.6 Million for Using SkyTel Pager Technology Without Permission

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gamerscul9870 - November 19, 2014 at 7:52pm

Best in hardware and software. Every phone maker obviously needs the gate rial, but like every apple products of theirs say, assembled by Apple and designed in the U.S.A.! But how does it make them stupid! sEriously?

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Stiffy O'Riorda - November 18, 2014 at 9:55pm

Anytime a story like this appears, out pop the trolls, usually accusing Apple of inventing nothing, stealing everything, kicking little dogs etc. The patent system is broken. It's a minefield. You can employ hundreds of agents to look for relevant patents and still miss something that decades later 12 amateur non-technogists sitting as a Jury will find you should have licensed. If a company only moved ahead on its developments where there was zero chance it might be using some part of some patent filed somewhere in the world, then R&D would grind to a halt.

THui - November 18, 2014 at 10:50pm

It is normal. Every tech company has been sued for patent infringement claims before. Some cases they will lose and some they will win. So far, I feel that Apple has done more to revolutionize the hardware part in the mobile industry than any other company because of the quality of the devices. U don't necessarily need to have the highest specs on a device for the best quality. Companies like Samsung and LG are much worst in copying others. For example, it was revealed that Samsung's A series phones were blatantly copied from the IPhone design. They also lost more patent infringement cases to Apple. On the software side, yeah, Apple might have copied a couple things from Android but at least those things were never patented. These lawsuits are all about patented technology.

iSteals - November 19, 2014 at 7:23am

Lol. Yes its normal when apple stealing . Hahahhaahahah

gamerscul9870 - November 19, 2014 at 11:53am

Not as normal as Samsung getting sued for real knockoff junk every time.

Mike Power - November 18, 2014 at 9:28pm

Apple is not real, always been the biggest thief in history, everything they do or have have always been somebody elses's and I mean everuthing, por cydia and the jailbreak community.

Ken - November 19, 2014 at 9:45am

What? You've just posted gibberish.

iAgk2412 - November 18, 2014 at 8:12pm

Everybody it's ok. If its apple who steals technology then everything is fine. Just don't let anybody else know. Tools.......

Roger Melly - November 18, 2014 at 6:21pm

And the patent trolls continue...