German court rejects patent claim against Apple

A European court dismissed a patent claim against Apple from a German company alleging the iPhone maker infringed on its cellphone technology, reports Reuters.

The $2 billion claim involves a patent from IPCom that allows users to access their cellphones in emergencies when wireless networks are overloaded.

IPCom has been described by some as a "patent troll," buying up patents with no intent to use them.

Apple has said it has been sued 92 times by patent companies in the last two years, and it has more than 220 unresolved patent claims, according to Bloomberg News, and has to employ two lawyers to respond to royalty demands its says are frivolous.

Companies such as IPCom have been criticized because they own a portfolio of patents, although they're not using them in industrial processes — making money instead from license fees, royalties and enforcing patents.

However, a spokesman for the firm rebuked the criticism, saying that the value of patents were made transparent by companies such as IPCom, rather than by the technology companies themselves, which used them for "blackmail."

"Patent troll … is an insult designed to discredit all patent owners," said Alistair Hammond, a spokesman for IPCom. "But it is the companies abusing the intellectual property of others. … There is a world of difference between people who abuse the system and those who simply expect to get paid by the companies using their patents."