‘Wide Range’ of Apple Products Infringe Patent on Solder Alloys, Alleges Complaint

A “wide range” of Apple products, including the iPhone X, uses a lead-free solder alloy in violation of a January 2001 patent (6,176,947), alleged the patent’s owner, Singapore Asahi Chemical & Solder Industries, in a complaint (in Pacer) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Asahi, a global manufacturer and distributor of solder products and related chemicals, bought the patents in March 2002 from two Cleveland-area inventors, said the complaint. The inventors recognized that “traditional” lead-tin solder alloys faced a “limited future,” so they devised alloys “to meet the increasing level of performance needed in solder joints as required by the continued advancements in integrated circuit and IC package technologies,” said the complaint. It’s those lead-free alloys that are incorporated into Apple products without an Asahi license, it said. Asahi gave Apple written notice of the alleged infringement “at least as early” as July 2017, it said. “Despite such previous written notice, Apple continues to infringe Asahi’s patent rights.” Apple didn’t comment Thursday.