Canadian patent licensing firm Wi-Lan Inc., said a United States judge has ruled that Apple Inc.’s iPhones and iPads do not infringe two patents owned by the Ottawa-based company.
In December 2012, Wi-Lan (TSE: WIN) commenced litigation against Apple, HTC Corp and Sierra Wireless Inc., claiming infringement of Wi-Lan’s two U.S. patents related to long term evolution (LTE) technologies.
Wi-Lan’s primary business is acquiring ownership of intellectual property and then seeking to charge fees to companies that make use of it.
Apple maintains the patented technology has to do with prioritizing connections for allocating bandwidth and is not relevant to Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) products because they don’t have multiple connections that require prioritizing.
HTC and Sierra Wireless have signed license and settlement agreements to resolve this litigation, according to Wi-Lan.
Earlier this year, Wi-Lan moved for summary judgment on invalidity claims. Apple moved for summary judgment on invalidity and non-infringment defenses.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego granted Apple’s request for a ruling that based on the undisputed facts of the case, its products don’t infringe the two patents, according to a statement from Wi-Lan on Wednesday.
“Wi-Lan has been advised that Judge Dana M. Sabraw has issued a ruling today that grants Apple’s motion for summary judgement,” Wi-Lan said. “Wi-Lan is currently reviewing the ruling with trial counsel.”
The early ruling by Sabraw, effectively ends the case before it even goes to trial.
However, Wi-Lan said it still has a separate case against Apple in the same court for five other LTE patent infringement claims.