Apple To Pay $533 Million Fine For Patent Infringement

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold, but what you are about to read here is not exactly in a similar vein – although there is an element of gleeful revenge, at least based on speculation. Samsung, a company that has gotten into its fair share of legal skirmishes with Apple over the years, would definitely be pleased to hear that Apple has been ordered to pay a $533 million fine for infringing Smartflash’s patents.

While $533 million does sound like a colossal sum (which it is), it is but a drop in the bucket for a company that recently made the headlines of being worth more than $700 billion, now how about that? The $533 million fine that Apple has to pay was ordered by a US court, no thanks to Cupertino having infringed upon a trio of patents that were owned by Texas-based patent licensing company Smartflash.

These patents were certainly related to digital rights management (DRM), data storage, and payment systems. Smartfish took Apple to court, touting that Apple’s iTunes software made use of such patents without prior permission, although Apple claims that such patents were invalid. Well, it goes without saying that Apple is currently working on an appeal for the decision.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple
Tags: Legal, Patent