Court battles for Cupertino-based Apple don't seem to end. San Diego-based Ameranth, a gaming and restaurant software company, has sued Apple for violating four of its patents in the new iOS 6 Passbook app.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of California. The company claims that Apple's Passbook violates four of its patents: No 6,384,850, No 6,871,325, No 6,982,733, and No 8,146,077.
All four patents of Ameranth deal with "Information management and synchronous communications system."
The patents cover the ability to synchronize data among wired, wireless and Web-based systems for electronic menus and reservations for such businesses like restaurants, CNET reported.
The Passbook app in the new iOS 6 lets users synchronize and save electronic copies of tickets, boarding passes, loyalty cards and coupons.
Ameranth even alleges in the suit that Apple was aware that they were being violated.
"One of the Ameranth patents-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 6,384,850 -- the first patent issued in this Ameranth patent family -- was cited as a prior art reference in two Apple iPhone patents issued to named inventors Bas Ording and Steven P. Jobs," the company said in its court filings. "Also, three of the patents in this Ameranth patent family have been asserted in several patent enforcement actions against Apple business partners."
The company is seeking to triple the damages it had to sustain for "willful infringement" by Apple.
Ameranth is not new to patent lawsuits. It has previously filed patent infringement cases against big names in the hospitality industry including Hilton, Marriott, Best Western, Travelocity, Kayak, Hotwire, Expedia, Orbitz, Ticketmaster, Stubhub and Fandango.
A look at Ameranth's home page shows its various patents and news about patent agreement.
