Apple Found Guilty Of Patent Infringement, To Pay $532.9 million

A federal jury in Texas has found Apple inc. guilty of infringing patents owned by patent licensing firm Smartflash LLC.

Smart flash had requested $852 million, but the jury had ordered Apple to pay $532.9 million.

The jury, which deliberated for eight hours, determined Apple had not only used Smartflash’s patents without permission, but did so willfully.

Apple, which said it would appeal, said the outcome was another reason reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that don’t make products themselves.

“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.

Smartflash sued Apple in May 2013, alleging its iTunes software infringed its patents related to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.