Noise Free Wireless creating a lot of noise over alleged Apple infringement
When you're the big target, it seems like everyone is shooting at you. Apple is now being sued by a Silicon Valley company by the name of Noise Free Wireless over alleged infringement of a patent for mobile phone noise-reduction technology.
Noise Free Wireless says that the company first showed off its patented technology to Apple at meetings in 2007 with a number of increasingly technical and confidential meetings following until 2010, when Noise Free found that Apple was going to use technology from Audience (a rival) in future products.
However, in June of 2010, Apple filed an application for a patent covering noise suppression. Noise Free Wireless is alleging that Apple reverse-engineered their "proprietary and confidential object code, determined Noise Free's noise reduction software, and measured and duplicated the signal traces from the circuit board and microcontroller," and then supplied that information to Audience.
The lawsuit was filed on July 3, 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with Noise Free asking for damages for the alleged infringement as well as an invalidation of Apple's patent.
