Silicon Valley, USA (CWBN)_ Apple has lost an early appeal in its case against Corellium, a security company providing a virtualised version of iOS for security monitoring. The judge presiding over the lawsuit, deciding on a motion for summary judgement, dismissed Apple’s patent violation claim over Corellium’s software, finding that the use of Apple technology by Corellium constitutes fair use. On a different Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim, the judge postponed the decision, but the outcome is still a significant loss for Apple. This incident was first brought to light by the Washington Post.
Besides, the judge found that the enhanced capabilities of Corellium’s tool improved its argument for fair use, particularly the flexibility to change the kernel or to monitor and stop processes.
During his ruling, the judge went on to note, “Corellium makes several changes to iOS and incorporates its own code to create a product that serves a transformative purpose,”. “Hence, Corellium’s profit motivation does not undermine its fair use defence, particularly considering the public benefit of the product.”
The court, notably, did not deny any more of Apple’s argument. Apple asserted that Corellium bypassed its authentication server and secure boot chain, among many other steps, despite the DMCA’s prohibition on circumventing copy protection measures. Corellium has provided a fair use argument against the DMCA allegations, but the judge did not find it sufficiently persuasive to withdraw the DMCA cases until a full trial.
Apple launched its litigation targeting Corellium on copyright grounds in August 2019, adding the proceedings of the suspected breach of DMCA rules in the following January. Across the proceedings, Apple has maintained that its goal is “not to encumber good-faith security research, but to bring an end to Corellium’s unlawful commercialisation of Apple’s valuable copyrighted works.” Still, the case has left a sour note for many security firms who depend on Corellium products to analyse iOS, and it’s vulnerabilities.
The Oracle v. Google dispute also raised a dark shadow over the courtroom and is linked to many times in the decision as a leading example of successful software patent claims. However, in the final analysis, the judge found that the lawsuit had no impact on Apple’s particular requests.
