Patent Holding Company Intertrust Files Patent Infringement Suit Against Apple

According to The Wall Street Journal, patent holding company Intertrust has filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that Cupertino-based company infringes on 15 of its patents. Intertrust licenses and invents technologies for digital rights management and currently holds more than 150 patents.

On its website, the company said the suit involves a number of Apple products, including the iPad, Mac computers, iPhone, Apple TV, laptops, and Apple services like iCloud, App Store and iTunes. Intertrust's CEO Talal Shamoon said:

"Apple makes many great products that use Intertrust's inventions. Our patents are foundational to modern Internet security and trusted computing, and result from years of internal research and development. We are proud of our record of peaceful and constructive licensing with industry leaders. We find it regrettable that we are forced to seek Court assistance to resolve this matter."

In 2004, Intertrust received one-time payment of $440 million from Microsoft after winning a patent infringement lawsuit against the company. Among its licensees, Intertrust lists major technology companies like Samsung, Panasonic, HTC, LG, Motorola, Adobe and Nokia.