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Apple Lawsuit loss Ping!
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Posted on 10/04/2010 11:51:19 AM PDT by Swordmaker
"Apple Inc. was ordered by a jury to pay damages to Mirror Worlds LLC for infringing patents related to how documents are displayed on a computer screen," Susan Decker reports for Bloomberg.
"The federal jury in Tyler, Texas, awarded $208.5 million in damages for each of the patents infringed. The verdict form was unclear as to whether the amount applies to the three patents collectively or would be charged individually. Lawyers for closely held Mirror Worlds declined to discuss the verdict," Decker reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Tyler, Texas. Rocket Docket.
Decker reports, "Mirror Worlds, a software business started by a Yale University computer-science professor David Gelernter, claimed Apple’s iPod music device, iPhone and Mac computers infringed its patents. Apple challenged the validity of the patents and whether they were infringed, according to court records. Gelernter said after the verdict he was 'tremendously grateful' to his lawyers for 'their overwhelmingly brilliant performance.'"
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Excessive.
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"Apple Inc. is challenging a jury verdict last week in which the computer maker was ordered to pay as much as $625.5 million to Mirror Worlds LLC for infringing patents related to how documents are displayed digitally," Susan Decker reports for Bloomberg.
"Apple asked U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis for an emergency stay of the Oct. 1 verdict, saying there are outstanding issues on two of the three patents. Apple said patent owner Mirror Worlds would also be 'triple dipping' if it were able to collect $208.5 million on each of the patents," Decker reports. "Closely held Mirror Worlds, founded by Yale University computer-science Professor David Gelernter, sued in 2008, claiming Apple’s iPod music device, iPhone and Mac computers infringed three patents for a way documents are displayed on a computer screen."
Decker reports, "Davis also is considering Apple’s request, filed before the verdict, to rule the company doesn’t infringe two of the patents. The judge said that if he granted that request, he’d strike the amount of damages attributed to those two patents... The case is Mirror Worlds LLC v. Apple Inc., 08cv88, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler)."
Read more in the full article here.
Mirror Worlds LLC, the legal entity that filed the complaint, is incorporated in Tyler, Texas,...
That does not sound right to me.
I tend to be anti-Apple (more for fun than any other reason - love getting Apple fans worked up). However, this is just crazy. Along with Microsoft suing Google for Android, these lawsuits are getting out of control. We need a “loser pays” system to stop some of these lawsuits - not that it would have helped here apparently.
Patent damages are some of the biggest. The winner is entitled to, at least, a reasonable royalty on the sale of the infringing party’s product.
Federal court in Tyler is widely known to be VERY plaintiff friendly.
loser pays = deep pockets wins.
Tyler, Texas, has absolutely no tech industry, and not much industry otherwise. It’s biggest employers are the local hospitals and schools. Pretty much every tech company set up there is a temporary shell company created for the purpose of suing a company that actually puts out products.
If all these lawyers worked for the same company, they would probably be the biggest employer in the city.
I don’t like Apple or MSFT but this guy posting “do not flame’ when he pimps Apple. We have this guy and another pimping Apple, Willie Green pimping lib train schemes with light rail, Chet with pit bulls, various idiots with semi-satires, devotionals to propserity preachers, idiots poimping for the NFL who cmeared Rush as a racist. Geez.
This is only very remotely related to two features of OS X, and they get over half a billion dollars? The court should start confiscating the crack pipes in the jury rooms.
We need to return to TJ's "19 year and then public domain" standard. You can claim forever to have invented a new kind of widget, but you only get exclusivity for a limited time.
And don't even get me started on idiots buying things up and sitting on them never intending to do anything at all with them...
Lawsuit abuse is a travesty.
amount to be honed down on appeal to a substancially lower figure..
That's exactly how tort (extortion) law works. If the town of Tyler, Texas did not stand to benefit from this lawsuit, the suit either would not have made it to the trial stage or the result would have been different.
British "loser pays" provisions tend to cut down a bit on meritless lawsuits, though they may also cut down on meritorious ones... and there are legal gamblers everywhere.
They never get tired of it and eventually wear you down, don't they? I hear ya and feel your pain.
Once the appeal cuts this number down to a reasonable amount, I think the original jurors should be on the hook for the difference. These creeps were awefully compassionate with Apple’s money, so I’m sure they won’t mind giving up some of their own.
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