Apple, Intel file antitrust case against SoftBank-owned
firm over patent practices
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[November 21, 2019] By
Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc <AAPL.O>
and Intel Corp <INTC.O> on Wednesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against
Fortress Investment Group, alleging the SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T>
unit stockpiled patents to hold up tech firms with lawsuits demanding as
much as $5.1 billion.
The suit follows an earlier case that Intel filed against Fortress in
October. Intel withdrew that suit and on Wednesday filed a new version
in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with
Apple joining as a plaintiff.
Intel and Apple allege that Fortress and firms it either owned or whose
patent portfolios it effectively controlled - and which do not make any
technology products - stockpiled patents for the primary purpose of
suing technology companies and did so in a manner that violated U.S.
antitrust laws.
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"Apple has suffered economic harm in the form of litigation costs and
diversion of resources away from innovation to respond to these
entities' serial nuisance suits," Apple wrote in the complaint.
Fortress and Japanese parent SoftBank did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. When Intel filed the similar lawsuit in October, a
Fortress spokesman told Reuters the company was "confident in our
business practices and our legal position and view this lawsuit as
meritless".
In the filing on Wednesday, Apple said firms connected to Fortress had
filed at least 25 lawsuits against the iPhone maker demanding $2.6
billion to $5.1 billion in damages. One of the suits, Apple wrote in its
filing, alleged that Apple violated a step-counting patent in its
devices with health-tracking apps.
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The Apple Inc. logo is
seen hanging at the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New
York, U.S., October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
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Two Fortress-connected firms, Uniloc USA and Uniloc Luxembourg, "have
disclosed that they believe they are entitled to damages of between
$1.41 and $2.75 per Apple product, for total damages in the range of
$375 to $732 million," Apple wrote in its complaint.
"The apparent precision of the per-unit damages request is a facade;
Uniloc USA and Uniloc Luxembourg simply adopted the amounts that Apple
sought from Samsung in litigation for Apple's patents," Apple wrote,
referring to South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS>.
Intel said it could not comment beyond the court filing. Apple, which
invested in SoftBank's first Vision Fund and in July was listed among
organizations pledging to contribute to a second fund, did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey;
Editing by Sandra Maler, Christopher Cushing and James Drummond)
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