From ComputerWorld: A federal court in Texas has ordered a new trial on damages in a patent infringement dispute between Apple and Smartflash that could modify an earlier $533 million damages award to the patent-licensing company.
District Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler division, ruled Tuesday that the earlier damages were set aside and vacated as the trial jury may not have been properly instructed.
Smartflash sued Apple in May 2013, alleging that iTunes software infringed on its patents related to serving data and managing access to data. A jury found in February that Apple infringed three Smartflash patents in order to produce and sell its iTunes software. It also found the three Smartflash patents to be valid. Smartflash had asked for $852 million in damages.
Smartflash sued Apple again soon after to focus on newer Apple products.
The Tyler-based technology development and licensing company claimed in both suits that its founder Patrick Racz, one of the co-inventors of the patents-in-suit, met with various people at Gemplus, now Gemalto, to discuss the technology claimed in the patents cited in the suit. Augustin Farrugia, who later joined Apple, was one of the people at Gemplus who learned of the technology in the patents, according to the complaint.
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