Apple fined €469m for infringing company’s patents

Apple was told to pay $532.9m (€469m) after a federal jury in the US said its iTunes software used a company’s patented inventions without permission.

Smartflash, which claimed that Apple infringed three patents, was seeking $852m in damages, while Apple said it was worth $4.5m at most. A federal jury in Tyler, Texas, where Smartflash is based, on Tuesday rejected Apple’s arguments that it didn’t use the inventions and that the patents were invalid.

The dispute is over digital rights management and inventions related to data storage and managing access through payment systems. Smartflash claimed iTunes used the inventions in certain applications. Apple pledged to appeal.