$625.5 million patent suit against Apple is overturned

A federal judge has overturned a $625.5 million verdict against Apple over patent violations this week.

The jury had ruled in favor of small tech company Mirror Worlds LLC and granted them one of the largest patent violation settlements, ever.

Says the judge:

Mirror Worlds may have painted an appealing picture for the jury, but failed to lay a solid foundation sufficient to support important elements it was required to establish under the law.

Last October a jury ruled that Apple had infringed on three patents relating to Cover Flow, Time Machine and Spotlight. Each of the techs are used on most Apple hardware.

Apple asked the judge to postpone enforcing the award since it objected to how the fines were calculated. The company applauded the decision to toss out the case.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Apr 2011 0:28

joepet200

Hmmm... 1 Federal Judge overturns 12 jury verdict after
"Apple asked the judge to postpone enforcing the award since it objected to how the fines were calculated."...

IMO, that translates to $1.5M to the Federal Judge, $624 to Apple and SQUAT to the patent holders.

One hell of a patent system in the US.

7.4.2011 10:42 #1

Gena777

Even so, the outcome of the patent litigation between Apple and Nokia is far from certain. As noted by Alexander Poltorak at GPC: "One cannot help wondering if the latest round [of suits between Apple and Nokia] is not a proxy for a fight between Microsoft and Apple, which are rivals as well." It's questionable whether these mobile wars should take place in the courts, in the form of patent litigation, or should be properly restricted to the marketplace, where they rightfully belong. Whatever one's position on the issue, however, it's true that as long as IP rights exist, then patentees have every legal right to enforce them.
link

11.4.2011 17:28 #2

AfterDawn: News