San Jose, CA., October 31, 2016:  Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins of the United Stated District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled, as a matter of law, that there is “no invalidity of the ‘151 patent,” which Core Wireless is asserting against Apple in a jury trial to begin December 5.

The patent at issue-U.S. Patent No. 6,477,151 provides innovations that improve battery life for mobile phones and increases cellular system capacity.

The District Court judge ruled that the ‘151 patent “is not invalid as anticipated or obvious.”  Core Wireless’s motion asked the Court to find that Apple could not prove “by clear and convincing evidence that claim 14 of the ‘151 patent is invalid as anticipated or obvious.”  Core Wireless argued that Apple’s supporting reference is not prior art because it was not published sufficiently in advance of the ‘151 patent application.

The District Court judge agreed, finding that the “critical date” of the ‘151 patent is November 10, 1997 and “Apple does not have any evidence that [the prior art reference] specifically was disseminated outside Nokia prior to [November 10, 1997].”  The judge based his ruling on key admissions from Apple’s expert witnesses.  The judge ruled that Apple could not meet its “clear and convincing evidentiary burden…Without further corroboration that [the reference] was seen by someone outside of Nokia, sent to someone outside of Nokia, or made publicly available on the ETSI website, the Court cannot conclude that a reasonable jury could find that the ’151 patent is invalid as obvious or anticipated based on the [] reference.”

The case is Core Wireless Licensing S.a.r.l. v. Apple Inc., Civil Action No. 15-cv-05008 (N.D. Cal.).  The products at issue are various models of Apple’s iPhone and iPad products used, sold, or imported into the United States.

Core Wireless is represented by Marc Fenster, Reza Mirzaie, Adam Hoffman, Neil Rubin, and James Pickens of Russ August & Kabat.

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