Apple, whose CEO Tim Cook has the nerve to try and tell other Companies how they should behave has seen his Company fined yet again, this time close to $400 million for infringing a digital rights patent.
The Company has a history of being fined tens of millions after being caught out stealing other people’s technology to use in their own iPhones and MAC computers.
In the latest case a US Federal Court judge ordered Apple to pay A$395.5 million to Personalized Media Communications after a jury ruled the tech giant infringed a patent related to digital rights management.
Personalized Media had sued claiming Apple infringed its patent with technology including FairPlay, which is used for the distribution of encrypted content from its iTunes, App Store and Apple Music applications.
According to Bloomberg one expert for Sugar Land, Texas-based Personalized Media had calculated Apple owed A$310 million in royalties.
After a five-day trial, the jurors in Texas ordered Apple to pay a running royalty, which is generally dependent on the level of sales or usage.
Last week Future Link Systems in the USA filed a complaint against Apple for patent infringement, alleging that the defendant infringed the patents-in-suit via Apple’s electronic devices and components of said devices. This case is set to be heard.
Apple who has A$359 billion in cash reserves appears to have a corporate culture where it’s okay to steal a patent until it is challenged in a Court said one competitor.
This is the same Company that moved to throttle older iPhones, in an effort to force their own customers to buy a new model iPhone so they could generate more profits.
In this court case Apple agreed to pay more than A$700 million to settle the US lawsuit over the Batterygate scandal.
It also paid $175 million to settle a separate multi-state investigation into the matter.
Now the iPhone maker is facing new action by a European group who have filed a claim in Italy.
The consumer advocacy group Euroconsumers, is seeking close to $100M million from the world’s most valuable company.
The latest ruling is the result of a lawsuit that was originally filed in 2015, but Apple challenged the validity of the patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. A U.S. appeals court last year reversed the board’s decision that certain patent claims were invalid, thus reviving the case for trial.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap last week also adopted a magistrate’s recommendation denying Apple’s request to find the patent invalid.
A similar case against Netflix is pending in New York.
In another case a developer has taken Apple to court over claims the iPhone maker promotes and profits from fake apps.
Kosta Eleftheriou, the creator of a mobile keyboard for the blind, says Apple failed to police fraudulent knockoff apps in the App Store which were marketed well but didn’t actually work, Bloomberg reports.
Eleftheriou claims the fake apps were promoted within the App Store despite being unworkable and stole 80 per cent of his revenue.
In the UK Apple is getting dragged over the coals in court yet again after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether the company’s app store terms are unfair and anti-competitive.
The investigation follows Epic Games’ high-profile lawsuit against Apple, after the game developer was banned from the app store for circumventing the 30 per cent ‘Apple tax’ it is forced to pay when users make purchases.
The CMA will look into whether Apple imposes ‘unfair’ terms on app developers and assess its position in the market.
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and software chief Craig Federighi are among the technology giant’s top executives who may testify in its trial versus Epic Games also set to appear is the head of the Apple Store.
The trial in a US court was ordered after Epic sued over the removal of its hit game Fortnite from the App Store.
Apple removed the game for circumventing its in-app-purchase rules.
Apple countersued Epic involving the game maker’s income from not using its in-app-purchase system, which charges a 30% fee per transaction.
Apple is also waiting on the result from the arrest of the Companies head of security.
Apple who already has a questionable track record found themselves caught up in a bribery scandal with a US district attorney accusing Apple’s Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer of offering a bribe to Californian state officials to get concealed gun licences.
Moyer was named along with Santa Clara County Undersheriff Rick Sung and Captain James Jensen in a case that involved offering bribes in return for concealed firearms licenses according to Bloomberg.
The charging of Apple’s head of security follows a two-year investigation by the District Attorney’s Office. What was revealed that Sung, aided by Jensen in one instance, held up the issuance of concealed firearms (CCW) licenses until the applicants gave something of value.
