News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

November 26, 2007

legal

Under the gavel: Apple’s bubble Burst

Posted Nov. 26, ’07, 9:11 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Legal

Burst.comThanks to the attack of turkeys, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and spring rolls (what, you don’t have spring rolls at your Thanksgiving?), we missed some late-breaking news from last week: namely that Apple has settled a lawsuit with Burst.com for $10 million. The dispute centered around intellectual property: Burst alleged that Apple was infringing upon several of its patents having to do with technologies that are involved with the iPod, as well as video compression and transmission.

We’ve covered the Burst dispute before, most recently on November 15th when it was announced that a judge had dismissed fourteen of Burst’s claims, with another 22 still pending. Apple apparently decided that it would be better to pay the piper and move on to other matters. The deal gives Apple access to all but four of Burst’s patents (most of which are pending). Microsoft had previously also been a target of Burst’s litigation, and Redmond ended up settling with them in 2006 for $60 million.

Well, that’s one legal problem down and approximately eleventy billion to go. And hey, maybe Burst could put some of that $10 million into making a decent website.


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