On second thought, Apple doesn’t have to pay $533M for alleged patent infringement

By Lulu Chang Published March 2, 2017

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Its patent disputes with Samsung and Nokia are another story, but at least in the case of Apple versus Smartflash, the iEmpire has come out on top. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court overturned the original verdict requiring Apple to pay the impressive sum of $533 million to Smartflash LLC, a tech company that accused Apple of infringing upon its data storage patents with its iTunes software.

The decision comes a full two years after Smartflash was first declared the victor in the legal dispute by a Texas federal jury. In the most recent decision, a three-judge appeals panel unanimously determined that the patents Smartflash does have are too “abstract” and fail to describe any real invention closely enough to benefit the company.

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The case has dragged on for nearly four years in total, as Smartflash first sued Apple in May 2013. Founded in 2000 by Patrick Racz, Smartflash does indeed have a number of patents around data storage, but the company never produced any products. Nevertheless, the company has filed numerous lawsuits against a wide range of tech giants, including not only Apple, but Samsung, Google, and Amazon as well.

Its case against Samsung is still pending.

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Apple and Samsung are now colluding in a challenge regarding the validity of Smartflash’s patents, Reuters reports, and are asking the United States Patent and Trademark Office to take a closer look at some of Smartflash’s more “abstract” filings.

The moral of the story: Even if you have a good idea, simply claiming it first clearly isn’t enough when you’re up against a superpower in the court of law.

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