Apple fined $533m over iTunes infringement
Apple has been ordered to pay a licensing company more than $500 million in damages after its iTunes software was found to infringe three patents.
The ruling, which means the California-based company must fork out $532.9 million, was handed down by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday (February 24).
The damages award was less than the $852 million sum that had originally been sought by the plaintiff, Texas-based company Smartflash.
Smartflash had sued Apple in May 2013, alleging that the California-based company’s iTunes software infringed patents directed to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.
Apple filed a counterclaim in July 2014 and argued that the patents were invalid.
During the trial Apple claimed that it did not infringe the patents and that earlier patented inventions covered the same technology.
But district Judge Rodney Gilstrap dismissed the claims.
In a statement, an Apple spokeswoman told news website Bloomberg: “Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no US presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented.”
She added: “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.”
Neither Apple nor Smartflash responded to a request to comment.
