In May 2013 Smartflash sued Apple alleging that Apple's iTunes Store infringed their patents. In February 2015 Smartflash won their case and Apple vowed to appeal. In July 2015 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Federal Judge Throws out Smartflash Infringement Case Damages against Apple, Sets New Trial for September." Then in June 2016 we posted a report titled "In 2015 Smartflash won a $533 Million Verdict against Apple, but Two out of Three Patents have now been invalidated." Yesterday a federal appeals court threw out a jury verdict that had originally required Apple to pay $533 million to Smartflash and more importantly, said that the judge should have ruled the patents invalid and set aside the previous verdict entirely.

According to a Reuters report, "A unanimous three-judge appeals panel said Smartflash's patents were too 'abstract' and did not go far enough in describing an actual invention to warrant protection.

The decision likely ends a case that had attracted wide attention when the verdict was rendered but had gone against the plaintiff ever since.

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