On December 15, the Chamber of Patent Disputes of Rospatent began considering the case against Apple. Entrepreneur Artashes Ikonom accuses the company of violating a patent for emergency communications and demands 295 billion rubles.
The case has been going on since 2019. Then Ikonomov first sued Apple to ban the sale of iPhones with emergency calling restrictions, since it hoped to protect his patent received in 2013. Ikonomov lost the trial.
He then filed another lawsuit against Apple in a fight against competitors who violated his unique rights to a utility model and to recover a price of 295 billion rubles. According to the plaintiff, his patent is fairly used in the iPhone 5S, iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone SE, iPhone 11 and iPhone 12.
In mid-2022, the court did not satisfy the claim, but Ikonomov filed an appeal against this decision. At the end of last year the case was difficult because the court ordered an examination.
In October of this year, the proceedings resumed, but at the end of November the court conducted a new examination and again suspended the proceedings for the intended purpose.
If Rospatent recognizes Ikonomov’s utility model patent as invalid, this will become a basis for refusing to satisfy its claims. Otherwise, the court will side with the plaintiff, but the size of the monument will most likely be reduced.
It is not clear how the patent holder justifies the size of the structure at almost 300 billion rubles. The usual royalty fee is 5–10% of the value of the product sold using patent rights. With a turnover of 85 billion rubles. (this is the turnover of Apple Rus in Russia in 2022, according to Rusprofile) for a year, a license can be granted by the administration, for example, 8.5 billion rubles. Taking into account the statute of limitations, compensation could amount to 25–30 billion rubles.
Sergey Zuikov, patent attorney, managing partner of Zuikov and Partners
During the trial, Apple representatives argued that the iPhones used their own technologies, and not Ikonomov’s development. Apple’s defense also requested a recusal for the judge because it was believed that he was an interested party. [РБК]
Source: Iphones RU
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