Transcend Shipping Systems has dropped its patent infringement lawsuit against AP Moller-Maersk.
The Florida-registered company filed for voluntary dismissal last week in the US federal court for the Western District of Texas.
The company did not disclose why it was dismissing the lawsuit and Maersk declined to comment to TradeWinds.
Maersk is one of four container shipping companies sued by Transcend, and the first, with Transcend alleging their container tracking systems infringe on four US patents.
In regard to Maersk, Transcend alleged its Captain Peter system is described by its patents, which cover systems in which a container and the conditions inside can be tracked with a global positioning system and a memory device.
Transcend specifically targeted Maersk's refrigerated container tracking.
Transcend's lawsuits against Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping Co and CMA CGM remain open.
The company is backed by Yonkers, New York, attorney and businessman Raymond Joao, who spent nearly 15 years litigating dozens of lawsuits against financial services firms over patents owned by his Joao Bock Transaction Systems.
Joao Bock Transaction Systems settled some of the suits, while others were dismissed with the patents invalidated.
Joao has been described as a patent troll in court papers or alternatively a "non-practising entity", a term for a person or company that owns patents to sue over instead of making products.
Lawsuits for non-practising entities became a significant portion of patent infringement lawsuits filed in the 2010s.
Since, new laws and court decisions have narrowed the rights of US patent holders, including where and when they can sue while reiterating the criteria for patentability.
