US Federal Jury Calls Apple to Pay Fine for Patent Violation
26 February 2015 12:46 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay a fine of US$532.9 million after a federal jury discovered that the company’s iTunes software violated three patents owned by Texas-base patent licensing firm, Smartflash LLC.
Although the fine was lower than what Smartflash had been asking for, which is US$852 million in damages, the verdict was still a hefty blow to the US giant technology company.
After negotiating for eight hours at the US District Court for East Texas District, the jury determined that Apple had not only used Smartflash's patents without permission, but did it on purpose.
Apple said that the result was another reason why a reform was needed in the patent system to restrict litigation by companies that do not produce its own products.
"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," Apple said in a statement.
ANTARANEWS