Technology company Apple has to pay $ 308.5 million (nearly € 260 million) to license company Personalised Media Communications LLC (PMC) for violating a patent related to digital rights management. That’s what a jury in the U.S. State of Texas decided.
PMC had already sued Apple in 2015. Apple allegedly violated seven other patents of PMC with music service iTunes. Apple had initially successfully challenged the case, until the appeal decision was reversed, paving the way for this lawsuit.
Apple is disappointed with the ruling and appeals.
“These types of lawsuits, initiated by companies that do not make or sell products, suppress innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” said Apple.
Apple has been involved in lawsuits for a long time. For example, chipproducer Qualcomm already sued some of Apple’s suppliers because they no longer pay royalties for the use of patented technology. PMC itself has several cases due to patent infringement against, among others, streaming service Netflix, search engine Google and webshop Amazon.
Nicholas de Krammer, а self-taught economic analytic with heave mathematical background. Math behind the economics (and economics behind math) is the strong side of the author. Contact him at nicholas.dekramer@economicinform.com
