Trolls Gonna Troll? Win A $533 Million Patent Suit . . . Rinse Repeat.

Smartflash is what some in the tech industry might call a patent troll. It licenses patents but doesn’t actually create products.  Last month, Smartflash obtained a $533 million dollar verdict in a patent case against computer giant Apple.  Now, the company has filed another suit against Apple over the same disputed patents that were at issue in the first case.

In the original lawsuit, Smartflash accused Apple of infringing upon a number of patents relating to the access and storage of data, digital rights management (DRM), and payment systems.  The company claimed that these patents were used in a number of devices, including the iPhone and iPad. As noted above, in February, a Texas jury award Smartflash a $533 million verdict against Apple for that alleged infringement.

Apparently, Smartflash is not satisfied with $533 million verdict.  The day after that obtaining verdict, it filed another suit against Apple over these same patents.  They claim that the iPhone 6 and several other Apple products that infringe on their patents were not covered by the first lawsuit because they came to market after the first suit was too far along.  Now they want to be further compensated.

While these cases are interesting, it may all be for naught. As Bloomberg has reported, Apple has already been successful in getting similar verdicts from this particular district overturned. We’ll see what happens.