The year 2015 begins for Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), with a new lawsuit filed this time not by a competitor, but by a prestigious American university, specifically those from MIT. Those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology accuse Apple of using in its iDevices some semiconductors manufactured using a technology patented 15 years ago. More precisely, two researchers have developed a method of manufacturing semiconductors that are cut using a process that involves the use of lasers for better precision.
The MIT process was filed in a federal court in Boston, the university claiming that Micron Technology, the company that produced those semiconductors, knew about the respective patent when it supplied the components to Apple. Those semiconductors are used in the American company's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touches, so MIT is probably interested in getting some money from its patent. Although the researchers are not employees of MIT, the university claims that it owns the rights to the patent, so Apple was sued based on it and will probably have to pay.
In 2013, MIT hired a Texas company to sue Apple based on a similar patent, then that company demanded a ban on the sale of the iPhone 5 and the payment of $75 million in compensation. Now it is not known what will happen in the end, but the removal of iDevices from sale is very unlikely.
