Taiwanese man sues Apple over alleged FaceTime patent infringement
Apple has been sued yet again in China, this time by a Taiwanese man claiming the company is infringing on a patent he owns with FaceTime.
FaceTime is Apple’s video calling feature that is available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch as well as on its Mac computers.
The man, who goes by Lee, isn’t currently seeking damages or compensation but does want Apple to cease the violation. He claims FaceTime infringes on his patent for “voice network personal digital assistant” technology.
Lee’s lawyer said Lee developed the technology and patent because he traveled a lot, made many expensive calls and was seeking a way to reduce his need for those calls.
As a result, he reportedly applied for the patent in 2003.
“Lee is a technian [sic] of a Taiwanese tech company, he needed to travel aboard to various cities for work, therefore he always made international call to his company, parents and friends,” the lawyer said according to The Next Web. “Due to this reason, Lee was inspired and came up with an idea of implementing internet call feature on phones.”
The case was taken to the Intermediate People’s Court in Zhenjiang in China, and the trial is set to begin this month.
This is the fourth lawsuit Apple has had to deal with in China since it settled a lawsuit involving the iPad trademark in the country earlier this summer. Apple’s other China lawsuits involve the trademark of Snow Leopard, its 2009 Mac operating system, and two cases involving Siri, its iPhone voice assistant service.
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