Apple loses patent battle to Network-1

After years-long court battle dating back to 2008, Apple has announced to pay $25 million in settlement to Network-1 Technologies over a lawsuit regarding the alleged violation of U.S. Patent No. 6,006,227 for a "Document Stream Operating System," a piece of IP purchased by Network-1 from Mirror World Technologies.

On the other hand, Apple will receive a paid non-exclusive license to use technology detailed in the '227 patent, as well as access to other patents in Network-1's portfolio of acquired IP originally developed by Cox and Mirror Worlds. This move looks like a precautionary measure to avoid additional litigation from Network-1.

The '227 patent was created by Yale professor named David Gelernter, whose work was continued by doctoral student Eric Freeman prior to the Patent and Trademark Office's grant in 1999, who then founded a company called Mirror Worlds. Gelernter's research into "lifestreaming" technology, which covers a system that stores documents in a stream ordered chronologically, is similar to Apple's Cover Flow or Time Machine. The patent - nine granted patents and five patent applications - was sold to Network-1, which followed up with a new lawsuit, one being settled now.

The present settlement is the second in line after first in 2010, wherein the initial jury trial leveraging four Mirror Worlds patents resulted in a $625 million judgment against Apple, but the company successfully appealed that ruling six months later.

Apple is not alone in this patent battle. Microsoft recently paid $4.6 million to end a lawsuit over the same patent.