LONDON, October 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Patrick Racz, founder and inventor of Smartflash, announced a lawsuit filed by Smartflash against the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as part of the ongoing civil RICO investigation of Smartflash on Apple.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a federal law that allows for the prosecution of individuals or organizations engaged in illegal activities as part of a larger criminal enterprise.
In 2015, Racz won a resounding victory against Apple in court, with an initial jury award of $533 million for willful infringement. The main merits and conclusions of the case, that Apple infringed the technology and induced others to infringe, remain unchanged today.
From 2015 to 2018, Racz was then forced to defend a series of costly appeals in separate forums, including 48 individual cases before the Patent Trial Appeals Board (PTAB), where the panels of judges were stacked and comprised of former attorneys for defendants, including Apple.
“We have been fighting tooth and nail against the U.S. Patent Office for three years to obtain copies of several unredacted emails and documents that we have every right to receive, but have had no choice but to sue them,” Racz said. “We are committed to protecting our intellectual property and will not rest until justice is done.”
The complaint explains that the USPTO withheld several unredacted documents requested by Smartflash under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), as part of a “pattern or practice” that unacceptably delays Smartflash’s access to relevant government documents, preventing Smartflash from continuing its multiple activities. Year-long investigations into PTAB panel manipulation and stacking, evidence of how Smartflash was treated at the USPTO, and how the USPTO falsely claims deliberative process privilege where it did not exist.
The complaint explains why the withholding of documents relating to these cases at the PTAB is a matter of great public importance, citing Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch’s opinion in UNITED STATES v. Arthrex, Inc., 141 S.Ct. 1970, 1993 (2021) and referencing the Apple v. Smartflash cases at the PTAB, where former Apple patent defense attorney Matt Clements presided over cases involving his former employer Apple.
For more information or to request an interview, contact smartflash@borkowski.co.uk or call Charles Carroll at +44 (0) 20 3176 2700.
For more information on the campaign, visit www.patrickracz.com
SOURCE Smart Flash
