A years-old battle for the technology used by Apple in iTunes, the App Store and Apple Music has a new development. On Friday, a Texas federal jury said Apple had indeed infringed a patent for a digital rights management technology owned by Personalized Media Communications. As a result, it ordered the technology giant to exceed about $ 308.5 million.
Conformable Bloomberg, Personalized Media Communications has sued Apple for infringing its FairPlay patent, a digital rights management technology that is used to distribute encrypted content from iTunes, the App Store and Apple Music, among other patents, among other patents.
As explained by Personalized Media Communications, a file that is encrypted with FairPlay, such as a piece of media content or a software application, is digitally encrypted and can only be decrypted by an authorized user device based on specific decryption information. user or device specific. .
The process dates back to 2015 and has gone through many twists. Although Apple has successfully challenged the case at the US patent office, Reuters reported, an appellate court subsequently overturned this decision. And just last week, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap rejected Apple’s application to declare Personalized Media Communication’s patent invalid.
The trial and the jury’s verdict are the latest developments, but they will not be the last.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Apple said it was disappointed with the decision and would appeal.
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“Cases like this, brought by companies that don’t produce or sell products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” Apple told Bloomberg.
An expert for personalized media communications set a price of $ 240 million for what Apple owed the company in royalties for using its technology. However, the jury ordered Apple to pay a royalty, which is the price determined by sales of licensed products or processes.
Gizmodo contacted Apple to ask for comments on the case on Sunday, but did not hear. We will make sure we update this blog if we do.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is not the only company struggling with custom media communications for patents. The unit reports that YouTube won a patent lawsuit against Personalized Media Communications for various patents last year. Meanwhile, the company has also sued Netflix.