Apple Inc on Tuesday lost its copyright claims against a Florida company that makes “virtual iPhones” used by security researchers to test for vulnerabilities to its system.
Apple claimed that Corellium LLC copied the operating system, graphical user interface and other aspects of the devices without permission.
It accused Corellium of acting under the guise of helping discover bugs in the iPhone’s operating system, but then selling the information “on the open market to the highest bidder.”
Photo: Reuters
Corellium’s actions fell under an exception to copyright law because it “creates a new, virtual platform for iOS and adds capabilities not available on Apple’s iOS devices,” District Court Judge Rodney Smith in West Palm Beach said in his ruling.
That Corellium sells its product “does not undermine its fair-use defense, particularly considering the public benefit of the product,” Smith said.
Apple has a “bounty program” where it rewards so-called white-hat hackers who discover flaws in its system.
The Cupertino, California-based company argued that the Corellium product went far beyond that, although Corellium said that it evaluates potential customers and rejects some.
Corellium said its customers are government agencies, financial institutions and security researchers, and accused Apple of trying to control security research to limit what the public learns about vulnerabilities.
Apple had been in talks to buy the company, but the two sides could not agree on a price, Smith said.
Apple sued a year later.
Corellium’s virtual product is used on a desktop computer and cannot make phone calls, send text messages, access iTunes or do any of the other things an iPhone can.
“There is evidence in the record to support Corellium’s position that its product is intended for security research and, as Apple concedes, can be used for security research,” the judge said. “Further, Apple itself would have used the product for internal testing had it successfully acquired the company.”
Officials with the two companies did not immediately respond to queries seeking comment.
Apple argued that the case is similar to the billion-dollar dispute between Oracle Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google unit, in which an appeals court rejected Google’s arguments that it had the right to copy Oracle code for inclusion into the Android operating system.
The US Supreme Court is considering the issue.
Smith said that the two cases are not comparable — Corellium transforms iOS and adds new content, and it is not a direct competitor.
It was instead more like the case in which an appeals court ruled that Google’s creation of digital copies of books and showing snippets in search results was a fair use of copyrighted works, Smith said.
The judge said that Corellium might still be in breach of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits tools to circumvent security measures, so he declined to dismiss that aspect of the case at this stage.
He ordered the two sides to submit a status report by Jan. 11 to determine how the case proceeds.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS