ARCHIVES: This is legacy content from before Marketing Dive acquired Mobile Marketer in early 2017. Some information, such as publication dates, may not have migrated over. Check out the new Marketing Dive site for the latest marketing news.

Apple faces patent infringement allegations over how content is delivered to iPhone, iPad

Intertrust Technologies Corp. has filed a lawsuit alleging Apple infringed 15 of its patents related to how content such as applications, music and videos is protected when it is streamed or downloaded from the Internet to an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device.

The suit is notable because Apple has famously eschewed supporting standard technologies such as MP3 for downloading music to create its own walled garden where content cannot leave the Apple ecosystem. Intertrust says it decided to take legal action after attempts to settle the matter with Apple outside of the courtroom failed.

?Our inventions are literally why they have a walled garden,? said Talal Shamoon, CEO of Intertrust, Sunnyvale, CA.

?Third parties write software for iOS and MAS OS, and the content and the apps go over the open Internet,? he said. ?To create a walled garden, you need digital trust like modern security technologies.

?I think that without what we have, app stores will not work as cleanly and securely as they do. You certainly would have a very hard time doing any kind of video rentals or selling movies from the iTunes store.?

Apple did not respond to press inquiries.

The App Store
Intertrust?s technology has been licensed by numerous mobile handset manufacturers, including Motorola, Nokia, LG, HTC, Samsung and Sony to enable users to securely download and stream content. The company holds more than 250 patents.

The suit brought by Intertrust alleges that Apple is violating Intertrust?s patents related to how it secures content. The company alleges that all of Apple?s devices infringe on the patents, including Apple TV, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro in addition to mobile devices.

The suit also covers Apple services such as iTunes, iCloud and Apple's App Store.

?It is really integral to how you make content distribution services for audio, books but also app stores, how you protect privacy, everything you really rely on when you are using an iPhone or and Android phone,? Mr. Shamoon said.

?They?ve done a very elegant job of hiding it from legitimate customers, but if you try to do something bad on the App Store, like upload an app that steals personal information or try to inject a virus, there is a lot of security technology in there that allows Apple to control that type of situation,? he said. ?That relies on stuff that we?ve invented.

?The stuff we?ve come up with we feel is really fundamental to digital commerce.?

Licensing fees
This is the first company Intertrust has sued since it won a preliminary ruling in an infringement lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. that led to the company licensing Intertrust?s data rights management technologies for $440 million.

Intertrust filed the lawsuit against Apple in the US Federal Court in the Northern District of California. It wants Apple to either stop using the technology or pay a licensing fee.

?What we?ve sued Apple on is that they are infringing every device and service they run some aspect of our invention,? Mr. Shamoon said.

?We?ve been trying to do a deal them for a while,? he said. ?Apple has a different way of doing things and this is the way they like to do it.

?All we are asking for is that they either stop using our inventions, which would make their devices really boring or to pay us what we feel that they owe us fairly.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York