Patents are occupying the center stage with various companies playing the peripheral roles in the world of technology. With the filing of a suit by Florida-based Operating Systems Solution (OSS) against Apple, it now dons the role of a defendant vis-a-vis the role of a plaintiff which it has been playing for the last few months.
Patently Apple reports, “On Friday, OSS filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the tech giant alleging that its Mac OS X fast boot feature violates one of its patents relating to a “method for quick booting an OS.”
The court’s document states that “Apple sells or offers to sell within this district, computer systems, including but not limited to the MacBook Pro, that utilize the Mac OS X operating system that infringes at least claim 1 of the OSS [Operating System Solutions] Patent.”
More specifically, the lawsuit says Apple infringes on:
“A method for fast booting a computer system, comprising the steps of:
A. performing a power on self test (POST) of basic input output system (BIOS) when the system is powered on or reset is requested;
B. checking whether a boot configuration information including a system booting state which was created while executing a previous normal booting process exists or not;
C. storing the boot configuration information from execution of the POST operation before loading a graphic interface (GUI) program, based on the checking result; and
D. loading the graphic user interface (GUI) program.”
LG Electronics was originally granted the patent in 2002 which was then reissued to a company named Promitus Technologies LLC in 2008. It remains unclear how OSS obtained the patent,or if LG or Promitus Technologies are involved in the lawsuit in any way.
The case was filed in Florida Middle District Court. It may be noted that while this is a patent infringement case, the docket states that it’s an Injunctive Relief Request. That seems to be odd considering that the company is seeking tripled damages in this case alleging Apple ‘willfully disregarded’ the patent.
The lawsuit theoretically bans Macs and Mac OSX from sale without royalties or a settlement. In an unusual step, the plaintiff also demanded that Apple destroy all marketing and other materials for the fast boot method.
The suit and the complainant may not be as straightforward as it looks. Searching for layers beneath layers, Thenextweb reports, “OSS, is a company which returns very few search results beyond this pending suit. This fact seems to indicate that it maybe a shell company used by another patent holder to pursue a claim without directly involving a parent company. It is impossible to draw any direct correlations between OSS and LG as of yet, but the possibility exists that this is an attempt to gain leverage against Apple, which is currently pursuing claims against Android device makers HTC and Samsung over patent claims.”
Some of those claims raised by Apple have to do with core Android features, not just the design of these devices, making the outcome of those suits potentially impacting on any device running Android. If this patent was proven to be infringed upon by Apple, it would give the holder, OSS or a possible parent company, a significant bargaining tool to defend itself from infringement claims by Apple.
IP Analyst Florian Mueller is of the same view. In his blogpost, he says, “We will see whether there’s going to be any direct litigation between Apple and LG. In case this happens, we’ll probably see some rapid global escalation similar to what occurred between Samsung and Apple, which are now suing each other in nine countries across four continents.
Neither Apple nor OSS has commented on the lawsuit which could very well turn into a major part of the battlefield between Apple and Android.