Apple is on the hook for over a half-billion dollars, after a federal jury ruled that the tech giant willfully infringed on patents when developing iTunes’ data storage systems. The judge presiding over the case has ordered the company to pay $532.9 million in damages, according to Reuters.
The plaintiff, Smartflash LLC filed the suit in May 2013, seeking $852 million in damages and citing six patents that related to the storing and accessing of songs, videos and games. The sole employee of the company is founder Patrick Racz, a co-investor in the patents. In the suit, Racz claims to have met with one of Apple’s current senior directors, Augustin Ferrugia, 15 years ago, in which he discussed the technology related to the patents.
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Apple’s defense claims that Smartflash’s technology was too broad in terms and generic for patenting, and Smartflash’s patents were invalid because previously patented technologies had similar functions.
The jury arrived at the $532.9 million figure after deciding Apple “willfully” infringed on the patents. The damages were scaled accordingly. Apple plans to appeal.
“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” the company said in a statement. “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 has also filed similar suits against Samsung, Google and Amazon. With the proceedings with Apple now complete, those cases are sure to present complications for the aforementioned companies.
