Apple Has Been Sued For LED Lighting Used In iPad 3 & MacBook Pro

Texas based LED Tech Development has filed a formal complaint with a court in Delaware against Apple for infringement of four of it patents, reports Patently Apple. The filing states that Apple’s iPad 3 and MacBook Pro infringe upon four of LED Tech’s patents that the company describes as being “patents by assignment.”

The reports notes that Charles Lemaire, one of the original inventors of all four patents in this lawsuit, has also been credited with patents for Nuance Communications amongst others. The patents involved in the case include 6,095,661, 7,393,119, 6,808,287 and 6,488,390.

According to LED Tech, Apple’s iPad 3 and MacBook Pro use pulse-width modulation signals to drive light-emitting diodes, a process that shows that the infringement of patents has been wilful.

In each of the four patents under “Field of the Invention” we read the following:

“This invention relates to the field of lighting, and more specifically to a method and apparatus of controlling and powering a solid-state light source such as a light-emitting diode or LED, for a portable battery-powered flashlight.

I don’t think that the iPad or MacBook could be found at Home Depot’s flashlight department, even though LED Tech is suing Home Depot for selling flashlights based on two of the very patents being used against Apple.

Yet there is one of the four patents that present a powerful claim […] Whether that’s enough to win this case against Apple is unknown at this time.

The case was filed in the United States Delaware District. No judge has been assigned to this case as of yet.

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