As several vendors line up to sue Apple, the US Company has moved quickly by lodging a late night appeal for a jury to re reconsider an impending patent infringement decision that could cost it more than $630 Million in damages, which will be the largest damages award in US legal history in a patent case.
As several vendors line up to sue Apple, the US Company has moved quickly by lodging a late night appeal for a jury to re reconsider an impending decision that could cost it more than $630 Million in damages which is the largest damages award in US legal history for a patent case.
A US federal jury late on Friday night found that Apple had infringed three patents owned by Mirror Worlds, a company founded by David Gelernter, a Yale University computer science professor.
Immediatly Apple moved to file an emergency motion with the court, late on Sunday evening (Monday Australian time) seeking a stay of the jury’s verdict, arguing “outstanding issues” with two of three patents owned by Mirror Worlds justified the judge holding off entering the verdict.
Mirror Worlds alleged that Apple had infringed four of its patents.
After weighing evidence the jury said three had been infringed and awarded the company $208.5m damages for each one.
Apple is asking for a delay to the judge’s final decision saying there were unresolved issues with two of the three remaining patents in the case. If the court agrees damages will be reduced to $208.5m.
However, if the judge decides three patents have been infringed the damages award of $625.2m would be among the largest in US legal history.
In closing arguments made in the court and reported by the Bloomberg news agency, Apple said there were grounds for believing the patents were not valid and therefore whether they had been infringed.
It added that the patents had been sold and any damages awarded should reflect that market value. The patent package is believed to have been sold for $5m.
