Apple is fighting to get a decision of patent infringement overturned by a US judge, who has ruled that the company's iTunes Cover Flow technology infringes three patents held by Mirror Worlds.
A judge in Texas ruled last week that Apple had to pay $208.5 million for each patent it had infringed with its Cover Flow technology, which is in use on the company's iPods, iPhones and Macs.
Out of the four patents Mirror Worlds lay claim to the judge ruled that Apple was in breach of the three of them, which brings the total fine to over $600 million.
If Apple can't overturn this ruling, then it will be one of the biggest patent payouts ever in the US.
Feel flow
Apple is, of course, appealing the decision. Its lawyers have gone through the small print and found "outstanding issues" with two of the patents.
Apple is also arguing that the Mirror Worlds patents were sold for $5 million, so the $600 million fine is a tad excessive, even if the patents were infringed.
And it is not happy that it has to essentially pay out three times for the infringement.
Apple has filed an emergency motion and is hoping that the judge will not go ahead with the full, rather hefty fine.
Via WSJ
