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December 10, 2011 07:17 am GMT

Apple Made A Deal With The Devil (No, Worse: A Patent Troll)

gavelOver the last two years, Apple has been engaged in vicious legal battles over smartphone patents, many of which are aimed at squelching (or squeezing money out of)manufacturersof devices running Android. And now, for some reason, it has given valuable patents to a patent troll which is using them to sue many of the top technology companies in the world.Meet Digitude Innovations, a firm based in Virginia that recently filed suit with the International Trade Commission alleging patent infringement by technology companies including RIM, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Amazon, and Nokia (note that Apple is not on this list). The ITC is a favorite for companies litigating over mobile phone patent disputes, as it can block the import of products long before a case has actually concluded.Digitude was founded in 2010 and raised $50 million from Altitude Capital Partners, with aims to "acquire, aggregate, and license key technology areas within the consumer electronics and related technology fields in a patent consortium" in other words, it buys up patents and then sues other companies until they settle and agree to pay licensing fees, because it's generally less expensive than actually going to court.

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yVhFWg3zu-s/

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