Apple wins again without having to pay $308.5 million for digital rights management patents

CTOnews.com, January 21 (Xinhua)-- the United States Court of Appeals announced on Friday that Apple won the case, quashing the jury's verdict of $308.5 million. The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld the decision of a federal judge in East Texas and found that Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) 'patent was invalid.

CTOnews.com small class: patent licensing company PMC first sued Apple for infringement of multiple patents in 2015. An East Texas jury said in August 2021 that Apple's iTunes service, the FairPlay software used to decrypt movies, music and applications in App Store, infringed its 2012 patents, demanding that Apple pay $308.5 million in digital rights management patents.

Magistrate Rodney Gilstrap overturned the verdict four months later. Gilstrap said PMC used an inappropriate "submarine" strategy, which some applicants used before 1995 to delay the release of patents until the product of the invention was on the market.

Reuters reported that PMC applied for the above patents in the 1980s. Gilstrap said PMC adopted a so-called "submarine" patent strategy, filing successive applications and then keeping its patent portfolio "hidden" until the underlying technology was widely adopted in the industry.

The Federal Circuit upheld Judge Gilstrap's decision by a 2-1 decision.