TracBeam is the latest company to go after Apple with a patent infringement lawsuit.
A Colorado based company TracBeam, is suing Apple for infringing multiple patents owned by the wireless location tech company. According to the suit filed in the Texas Eastern District Court, four counts of patent infringements are filed against Apple, mostly related to wireless location technology used in Mac OS and iOS devices.
The lawsuit states that Apple has infringed on TracBeam's patents. The multiple counts include Apple's use of location services in MacBooks with Siri, Apple Maps, Safari and iAd service among other features like Camera and Find My iPhone. According to the report, the four patents in question are marked by their patent numbers, 8,032,153, 7,764,231, 7,525,484 and 7,298,327.
TracBeam's latest allegations against Apple follow previous lawsuits filed by the company against Google, AT&T, T-Mobile and several other tech firms. The series of patent infringement suits against different companies has earned TracBeam the "patent troll" title or a Patent Assertion Entity, a name given to any company that relies solely on its patents to sue infringing companies.
According to a 2011 study, patent trolls cost $29 billion to tech companies and a follow-up study in 2012 said patent trolling was out of control. Apple, with its status in the industry, was the number one target of patent trolls in the first half of 2013. During the second half, the Cupertino tech giant figured in the top three, the report added.
TracBeam is demanding a huge amount in damages.
Apple itself had been busy in suing other tech companies, mainly Samsung. But the latest development in the Samsung vs. Apple patent war took a peaceful turn when both companies decided to drop all cases outside the US. Other companies such as Nokia, Google and HTC have also been a target of Apple's lawsuits.
