€1.57 billion patent lawsuit against Apple gets dismissed by German court

German patent licensing company IPCom was handed a setback today when both of its patent infringement lawsuits against Apple were dismissed in a German court, reports FOSS Patents. The decisions were handed down by two different chambers within the Mannheim Regional Court. The patents cited in the dismissed lawsuits include European patent EP1841268 and German patent DE19910239, which describe methods of managing priority emergency access when wireless networks are overloaded. 

The Mannheim Regional Court has dismissed a lawsuit in which German patent licensing firm IPCom demanded €1.57 billion (US$2.1 billion) in damages from Apple for infringing a 3G patent, a court spokesman said Friday. IPCom sued Apple over a patent that relates to the way handsets are allowed to access networks of various mobile telecommunications providers. The firm has declared the European patent, EP 1 841 268, essential to the implementation of 3G mobile standards. Against Apple it asserted a narrowed version of that patent that was upheld by the European Patent Office (EPO) last month following challenges from Apple, Nokia, HTC, Ericsson and Vodafone. IPCom also sued Apple over a German patent, DE 199 10 239, which relates to a way to manage access to overloaded wireless communication channels.