Apple to pay $308.5mn for patent infringement

A federal jury in Texas said Apple Inc must pay about $308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) for infringing a patent associated with digital rights management.

The jurors late on Friday directed Apple to pay a running royalty to PMC, which is generally based on the amount of sales of a product or service.

An expert called by Personalized Media calculated Apple’s owed royalties to be $240 million, but jurors decided to apply a running royalty rate that ran the figure up to $308.5 million. Running royalties are typically calculated with a basis in unit sales or service engagement.

Apple said it was disappointed with the verdict and planned to appeal.

“Cases like this, brought by companies that don’t make or sell any products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” it said in an emailed statement.

PMC, a licensing firm, had originally sued Apple in 2015 alleging the tech giant’s iTunes service infringed seven of its patents.

Apple successfully challenged PMC’s case at the U.S. patent office, but an appeals court in March last year reversed that decision, paving the way for the trial.

In August 2020, Apple was ordered to pay a $506,200 judgment to PanOptis in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas in connection with patents covering wireless communication technology. In October 2020, VirnetX won a $503 million verdict against Apple in connection with network security patents in the Tyler Division of the Eastern District of Texas.

Maxell, a technology company based in Japan, sued Apple in March 2019 in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas alleging infringement on multiple patents. The case is scheduled for jury selection Monday before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III.

According to a February 2019 article published in The Verge, Apple has closed stores in the region to avoid future patent lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas.

Sugarland, Texas-based PMC has infringement cases pending against companies including Netflix Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.