In February we posted a report titled "Smartflash wins their Lawsuit against Apple who Vows to Appeal." At the time Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman stated that "Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented. We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system." Today a federal judge has thrown out the $532.9 million damages award against Apple after a jury found that its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by a Texas company.

In a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap said his jury instructions might have "skewed" jurors' understanding of the damages that Apple should pay SmartFlash LLC, a licensing company that held the patents in dispute. Gilstrap set a new trial only on the issue of damages for Sept. 14 in Tyler, Texas.

In June we reported that the owner of Smartflash was under a barrage of death threats for winning their case against Apple. Yet in the end, Patrick Racz used the threat-angle as a means of getting his story heard by the Post because 90% of the report is really about getting his side of the story out to the public.

About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.

Other Reports on this Case

Feb. 2015 - Smartflash Hits Apple with a Second Patent Infringement Lawsuit

May 2013: Apple's iTunes Store Allegedly infringes Several Smartflash Patents