Court rejects Smartflash’s triple damages claim over Apple infringement

A US district court has rejected Smartflash’s attempt to retrieve almost $1.6 billion in damages from Apple for patent infringement after rejecting the argument that the breach was “wilful”.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division reportedly rejected the licensing company’s claim that the $532.9 million it received in February for infringement by Apple’s iTunes service should be tripled.

Following that decision in February, Smartflash claimed that the infringement was wilful. The company said Apple deliberately delayed the trial in a “fruitless attempt to cover up” the “weakness” of its defence.

The district court also rejected these claims on Thursday, July 2.

A day after the district court awarded Smartflash the $532.9 million in February, the licensing company filed a new claim arguing that Apple infringed another one of its patents. The case has yet to be resolved.

Smartflash filed the first lawsuit against Apple in 2013.

At the same time, Smartflash sued Samsung, arguing that the Google Play app available on its platform and its own Media Hub app infringed six of its patents.

But in April the US Patent and Trademark Office granted both Apple and Samsung’s request for an inter partes review challenging the validity of some of the patents asserted by Smartflash. The cases are still pending.

Neither Smartflash nor Apple had responded to a request for comment at the time of publication, but we will update the story should either company get in touch.