It's back to the courts for Apple's crack lawyer team again. InfoWorld reports that the Cupertino-based company is among those being sued by a little-known Texas firm for infringing on an mp3-related patent.

The suit by Texas MP3 Technologies, filed February 16 in Marshall, Texas, alleges that Apple, Samsung, and Sandisk are infringing on U.S. patent 7,065,417. The patent was awarded in June 2006 to former iPod chip maker SigmaTel, and covers "an MPEG portable sound reproducing system and a method for reproducing sound data compressed using the MPEG method."

According to InfoWorld, SigmaTel sold the patent to a Dallas-based patent licensing agency shortly after receiving rights because it felt the agency was better equipped to take advantage of its potential value. SigmaTel said it had retained international rights to the patent and has insulated its customers from any legal action associated with the patent.

InfoWorld said that it is still unclear whether Texas MP3 Technologies is the Dallas-based company that bought the patents from SigmaTel or whether it acquired them from somewhere else. In the lawsuit, Texas MP3 Technologies said that it is the "assignee of all rights" of the patent and holds "all rights of recovery."