Apple has now been on both sides of “Slide to unlock” court battles

So back to court Apple and Zeroclick went; last Friday Apple asked the court for a declaratory judgment of invalidity for the two patents owned by Zeroclick that were originally given the ol’ heave-ho in 2015. This time, the plaintiff was Dr. Nes Irvine, the named inventor on the patents; Zeroclick had transferred the patents to him in 2017. And this is where things get really confusing. The business entity that originally sued Apple back in 2015 was called Zeroclick-1. Then, as we just mentioned, Zeroclick-1 transferred the patents to Dr. Irvine in December 2017. Dr. Irvine turned over those patents to another entity called Zeroclick-2 in January 2020.

Are you still following the bouncing ball? On Friday, the judge dismissed the case stating that the plaintiff, Zeroclick-1, had no legal standing to sue. So the latter asked the judge if he would substitute Zeroclick-1 with Zeroclick-2 instead of tossing the case. But the judge wasn’t having any of that and he struck from the record all proceedings since December 2017 when the patents were first transferred to Dr. Irvine.

Zeroclick-2’s sole business “ is the assertion of the Zeroclick Patents in litigation against various entities.” While some might call Zeroclick a patent troll, Apple’s court filing refers to the company as “a patent assertion entity.”

Apple is seeking a ruling from the court stating that the two patents owned by Zeroclick-2 be declared invalid or unpatentable. The company states that “such a declaration is necessary and appropriate at this time to determine the rights and obligations of the parties.” Apple is also asking the court to grant it any further relief it deems “just and proper.”