Apple have been forced to pay damages after being found guilty of using inventions owned by another business. The company has been told to pay $533 to Smartflash, a company that owns and licences various tech patents but doesn’t actually manufacture products itself. The patents are related to technologies used in the iTunes store.
Smartflash, who are based in the British Virgin Islands had been hoping for a bigger amount but said they were happy with the outcome. However, Apple says it plans to appeal and is asking for patent reform.
In a statement, Apple said: “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.”
Smartflash are the latest in a series of NPEs or Non-Practicing Entities to become victorious after taking on big-name tech companies despite being branded “patent trolls”.
Samsung were recently forced to pay $15.7 million to Rembrandt IP after being found guilty of Bluetooth-related patent infringement whilst Symantec were ordered to pay Intellectual Ventures $17 million following a case about anti-malware technologies.
Apple recently announced that they were redesigning their stores.