Patent Troll Sues Apple Over Backup Feature
IP monetization firm Stec IP claims that Apple is violating one of its recently acquired patents that describes a technology to backup data in different storage locations.
The patent was originally granted in 2006 to Veritas and has been in possession of Symantec according to the USPTO records at the time of this writing. Stec IP says it is the rightful holder of the patent and apparently acquired the patent in recent days.
Entitled "Replica synchronization using copy-on-read technique", the patent covers a
"method, system, and computer program […] to synchronize data maintained in separate storage areas using a copy-on-read technique. The separate storage areas may be distributed across a network, and the replicas of the data may be used for backup and/or disaster recovery purposes. Storage objects containing data and information relevant to managing the data by a particular application are identified, and only those storage objects are read. Data contained in the storage objects read are then copied to the replica storage area. This process avoids reading non-useful data, making the synchronization more efficient and conserving bandwidth of connections over which the data are sent."
Spec IP claims that five related patents 6,738,799; 5,495,607; 6,963,908; 5,825,891 and 6,925,481, four of which were in owned by Symantec prior to the lawsuit, substantiate its patent infringement claim. the company asked the court to be awarded damages, costs, expenses, and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest. There is no request to stop Apple from infringing the patents in question.
Stec IP filed unrelated patent infringement lawsuits against Oracle and Amazon as well.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
-
amk-aka-Phantom ReplyThere is no request to stop Apple from infringing the patents in question.
Yep, definitely a patent troll. They should just reject this kind of $h!t right away. -
aracheb lol, this pattern firm"troll" doesn't even try to hide is purpose and blatantly splat the purpose on its name.Reply
-
pjmelect Sync programs have been around for many years I wrote one back in the eighties, this is clearly an invalid patent due to the fact that it is prior art and obvious. If companies can get away with sh*t like this then the whole IP edifice will collapse under its own weight. Thinking about it maybe I should get on this patent bandwagon and sue Apple and Microsoft with some obvious patents.Reply -
JamesSneed All the trolls should sue like crazy. The patent system will not change without these idiots putting pressure on the largest companies.Reply
-
cookoy Take your basic file copying process: read file, copy it to another storage location. Then apply some geek jargon like "backup", "synchronization", "distributed network", "replication". And don't forget to put in "selectively" to give it a touch of distinction. Walla, a patentable recipe.Reply