IPhone giant Apple has been found guilty of a technology patent infringement case. A federal jury in Marshall, Texas, US has directed Apple to pay $ 30.85 million (Rs 2234.84 crore) to Personalized Media Communications (PMC). This decision has been pronounced regarding the patent infringement case of Digital Rights Management. The PMC alleged that Apple infringed its technical patents, including FairPlay. It is used for the distribution of encrypted content from Apple iTunes, App Store and Apple Music applications. On the other hand, Apple expressed disappointment over the decision and said that consumers are only harmed by such a case.
A Texas-based PMC expert had estimated that Apple should pay $ 24 million (Rs 1738.61 crore) as royalties. After a five-day trial, the jury ordered Apple to pay royalties to the PMC, which usually depended on sales or usage.
Apple expressed disappointment over the jury’s decision and said it would appeal against it. The company issued a statement saying that in this type of case, there are companies that neither manufacture nor sell any product, they just eliminate innovation. According to Apple, this ultimately leads to loss of consumers. This petition was originally filed about 6 years ago in 2015, but Apple challenged the patent’s validity in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. On this, the board had ruled that some patent claims are not valid, although in 2020 last year, a US appeals court overturned the decision, which triggered the trial again.
