6-Jan-2012 - Apple coughing up 5 million to settle patent infringement suit

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Apple will spend 5 million to settle a suit filed by Elan Microelectronics over the alleged violation beats by dr dre pro-tuned black/red headphone of a patent for multitouch technology, Elan said today. As part of the settlement, the two companies have also received authorization to use each other's patents, according to Reuters. In April 2009, Elan filed its suit against Apple in California Northern District Court accusing the iPhone maker of violating a 1998 Elan patent covering a method to detect the use of one or more fingers on a touchpad. Apple then countersued Elan for allegeding infringing on two Apple touchpad-related patents. Elan then followed up the initial suit by filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2010 seeking to ban the import of the iPhone, iPod green studio limited edition headphone Touch, iPad, MacBook, and Magic Mouse into the U.S. The ITC ruled in favor of Apple last year, saying the company hadn't violated U.S. trade law. But Elan continued to pursue its suit in California. With the case due to go to court in February, the two parties were finally able to reach a settlement. Like many tech firms these days, Apple is keeping its lawyers busy dealing with a slew of patent infringement suits. The company has been juggling various suits against Samsung, HTC, and Motorola. In an unrelated matter, Apple has also been fined 1.2 million by the Italian government over claims that the company encouraged Studio Ferrari headphone by dre customers to buy AppleCare support even though they had two years of free support after buying an Apple product. Neither Apple nor Elan immediately responded to CNET's request for comment on the settlement.

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