Jury Says Apple Should Pay $533 Million for Patent Infringement

Apple was ordered to pay $532.9 million because its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by Smartflash, said a verdict from U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas. The case, filed in May 2013, alleged that Apple’s software infringed three patents held by Smartflash and originally Patrick Racz and Herman-ard Hulst, who signed the patents over to the company in 2002. The jury ruled Apple’s software infringed on those patents, and did so willfully. Apple said it refuses to pay another company for its own ideas and has been left with no choice but to take the fight up through the court system, in a statement Wednesday. It said Smartflash "makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented." The patents covered a portable data carrier for storing data and managing access to the data via payment information and/or use status rules, court documents said. They also cover a computer network that serves data and manages access to data by, for example, validating payment information. The complaint said the parts that infringe on Smartflash’s patents include the software components responsible for buying digital content or applications from iTunes, the software components responsible for providing digital content or apps upon payment validation, the software components that provide in-app payment functionality, the software components that provide in-app advertising functionality, the software components that store payment distribution information indicating to whom payments should be made for purchased digital content or apps, and the software components that install, on a computer or server, any version of iTunes that can access the iTunes Store, any version of the App Store app, or any version of the Mac App Store. A lawyer for Smartflash didn't comment.