Apple has been ordered to pay a $530 million fine , following a Texas court ruling, for "willfully infringing on three different patents" owned by another company that were used in various applications in its iTunes digital store .
According to the Guardian and Bloomberg, the plaintiff, namely the company Smartflash which owns the usage rights, claimed that Apple infringed three of its patents, related to “data storage and access management through payment systems” and cited their use in various iTunes applications.
Apple, which said it would appeal the decision, argued that the outcome of the trial is another reason to overhaul the patent system to limit lawsuits by companies that do not produce products or software themselves.
“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no presence in the U.S., and is simply exploiting the patent system by claiming rights to technology invented by Apple and other companies,” said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet. It should be noted that Smartflash has already filed similar lawsuits against Google, Amazon, Samsung and HTC.
Source: lifo.gr
