With last week’s record-breaking pay out from Microsoft over a patent, it was only a matter of time before a bunch of nasty trolls came out of the woodwork to prey on innocent, unsuspecting companies. Now Apple, Samsung, and Sandisk have found themselves at the center of a lawsuit from some jerk off in Texas.

Texas MP3 Technologies owns U.S. patent 7,065,417, which is described as “an MPEG portable sound reproducing system and a method for reproducing sound data compressed using the MPEG method.” Along with some other shady details, it seems the company serves no purpose other than to sue people for patent infringement. The company is suing out of Marshall, TX where apparently, “speedy trials and juries that lean in favor of the plaintiff” are abundant. We’ll see how this proceeds. Hopefully, a judge will use common sense and will see that no harm is being done here.

Patent troll sues Apple, Samsung, SanDisk over MP3 players [iLounge]