‘Patent troll’ clobbers Apple with $532.9 million verdict

By | February 25, 2015

Scalper1 News

Apple (AAPL) got clubbed by a so-called patent troll late Tuesday when a federal jury in Texas ordered Apple to pay $532.9 million to a company that produces nothing but patent infringement lawsuits. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Apple’s iTunes software infringed three patents held by patent licensing firm Smartflash. Apple plans to appeal the decision. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said the outcome is another example that shows why reform is needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that don’t make products. “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,” Apple said in a statement. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no… Scalper1 News

Scalper1 News