Jury tells Apple to pay $308.5 million for patent infringement

[March 20, 2021]  (Reuters) - A federal jury in Texas said Apple Inc must pay about $308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) for infringing a patent associated with digital rights management.

The jurors late no Friday directed Apple to pay a running royalty to PMC, which is generally based on the amount of sales of a product or service.

PMC, a licensing firm, had originally sued Apple in 2015 alleging the tech giant's iTunes service infringed seven of its patents.

Apple successfully challenged PMC's case at the U.S. patent office, but an appeals court in March last year reversed that decision, paving the way for the trial.

The iPhone maker did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment but told Bloomberg that it was disappointed with the ruling and would appeal.

The Apple Inc logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

"Cases like this, brought by companies that don't make or sell any products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers," Apple was quoted as saying by Bloomberg .

Sugarland, Texas-based PMC has infringement cases pending against companies including Netflix Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Amazon.com Inc.

The case is Personalized Media v. Apple Inc.

(Reporting by Derek Francis and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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