Apple Fight Over Wireless Messaging Patents Moves Forward (1)

Apple Inc. will get another chance at a judgment declaring it didn’t infringe Zipit Wireless Inc.'s messaging patents after the Federal Circuit found a California court wrongly interpreted its precedent.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California erred by reading as a “bright-line rule” the appeals court’s precedent regarding when letters of communication should establish personal jurisdiction, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a precedential opinion.

The California federal court last March found it would be unreasonable to exercise jurisdiction over the dispute because Zipit’s communications were all related to ...