Litigation settled just as the case was set to go to trial

May 25, 2012 00:31 GMT  ·  By

The owners of technology licensing company SimpleAir must be rubbing their palms together after announcing a license agreement with Apple, by which the latter will supposedly continue to use certain technologies without fear of litigation.

A scenario most common to numerous technology companies, the licensing deal announced by SimpleAir today shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nor should readers regard this piece of news as some sort of indication as to what Apple’s future products might bring.

To be clear, Apple is simply avoiding costly lawsuits and fuss.

SimpleAir made the announcement official just minutes ago, announcing that “it has entered a confidential License Agreement with Apple pursuant to which Apple has taken a license to SimpleAir’s patents. The agreement settles the litigation with Apple.”

Apparently, the Mac makers were infringing on some patents owned by SimpleAir, “an inventor-owned technology licensing company with interests and intellectual property in the wireless content delivery, mobile application, and push notification market spaces,” according to the official description at simpleair.com.

Represented by Jeff Eichmann and Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner LLP and by Elizabeth DeRieux, Calvin Capshaw, and Jeff Rambin of Capshaw DeRieux LLP, SimpleAir filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple on September 23, 2009, in the U.S. federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Just as the case was set to go to trial last month before the Honorable Michael H. Schneider, “SimpleAir and Apple reached the principal terms of a settlement at the courthouse shortly before the trial commenced.”

There’s not much more to be said about SimpleAir, other than it appears they’re making some easy money right now.

Their “current news” tab opens a page to the single press release issued by the firm so far: “SimpleAir Announces License Agreement with Apple.”

The company is also proud to state on the front page of its website, “SimpleAir's patent portfolio is licensed by many leading technology companies, including Apple.”