Apple was recently found guilty of infringing three patents held by a local Texas company as a result of which jury in Texas has ordered Apple to pay more than half a billion dollars for patent infringement.
The patents held by Smartflash LLC related to digital rights management, data storage and access through payment systems. They were infringed upon by Apple’s iTunes, and by some of the apps available in the App Store. However, the plaintiff also mentioned the Mac App Store and iAds as avenues for infringement.
Smartflash had argued that it deserved to be awared $825 million in damages, where as Apple argued that the patents were invalid and even if they weren’t they’d be worth $4.5 million at best. However, jury decided in the favor of Smartflash and awarding damages worth $532.9 million.
Now after Apple, Smartflash intends to take other major players like Samsung, Google and Amazon. Smartflash has already sued Google who is trying to have the case transferred to California where as Amazon was sued in December, also in Texas.
