A federal jury in Texas has found that Apple’s iTunes software infringed on three patents owned by Smartflash LLC. The jury ordered Apple to pay $532.9 million to the patent licensing firm. Smartflash had asked for $852 million in damages. After the jury deliberated for eight hours, it determined that Apple had willfully used Smartflash’s patents without permission. The Tuesday decision is quite a blow against Apple, even if the jury didn’t award the entire requested amount.
Apple’s lawyers said they would appeal and went on to say that the decision was just one more reason why reform is needed in the patent system to stop litigation by companies which don’t make products themselves. In a statement, Apple said “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.
A lawyer for Smartflash said that the company is happy with the verdict.
The trial was held in Tyler, which is also where a jury in 2012 found Apple guilty of patent infringement and ordered the company to pay $368 million to VirnetX Inc. A federal appeals court threw out that damage figure later, saying it was calculated incorrectly.
