Apple is set to challenge a jury verdict after the tech giant was instructed to pay up to $625.5 million to Mirror Worlds for infringing software patents.
A federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled on Friday that Apple had infringed on three key patents owned by Mirror Worlds LLC. The patents related to the way files are displayed on the iPod, the iPhone and Mac. The technologies involved include Apple's Time Machine, Spotlight Search and Cover Flow interfaces. Mirror Worlds founder and Yale University computer-science Professor David Gelernter started his lawsuit against Apple in 2008. Apple challenged the validity of the patents and some claims were thrown out before the case was heard last week.
Apple is seeking to limit the damages from the lawsuit. Apple lawyer Jeffrey Randall argued that Mirror World patents had been sold for $210,000 and then $5 million and that the company was not worth more than that. If the $625.5 million award is granted then it would be the fourth-biggest patent verdict in U.S. history according to the Bloomberg News agency.
Patently Apple, a site dedicated to tracking Apple Patents, posted a series of 14 newly granted patents for Apple on Monday. Apple has won another Cover Flow patent and a set of patents pertaining to Apple's Time Machine. Both of these technologies were challenged by the Mirror Worlds lawsuit and the timing of the patent wins could be more than coincidence. Apple requested an emergency stay to delay the judge's final decision. If the court agrees, damages could be lowered to $208.5m.
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