It was again a victorious day for Apple Inc. (AAPL), when it won in an appeal against a verdict regarding the issue of U.S.
patent-infringement of the invention by a professor of Yale University on how documents are displayed on a
computer screen.
The question arose in the case was, whether Apple was responsible for infringement of patents owned by Mirror Worlds LLC. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington
gave the verdict, upholding a
lower-court decision that tossed the 2010 jury verdict.
The suit began in 2008, when Mirror Worlds, founded by Yale University
computer-science Professor David Gelernter, sued Apple’s alleging that its Mac computers infringed its patents. Apple
challenged the validity of the patents and argued against the infringement. The jury held Apple responsible for infringing three patents and
awarded damages of $208.5 million for each, (a total of
$625.5 million). In court papers, Apple argued that the amount was
too high and that it was improper to add the damages.
Later the U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis in Tyler, Texas,
overturned the October 2010 verdict, holding that Apple was not liable for infringement of the patent and that Mirror Worlds had failed to establish its
case. The court also said the damage award was too high, while
also upholding the validity of the three Mirror Worlds patents.
The trial looked into the Spotlight, Time Machine and Cover
Flow features in Apple’s Mac operating systems.
The case can be found by searching Mirror Worlds LLC v. Apple Inc., 11-1392, U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington) and Mirror Worlds LLC v. Apple Inc., 08cv88, U.S. District Court
for the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler).
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