Apple escapes $625.5 million patent payment

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Apple won’t have to pay Mirror Worlds the record $625.5 million (£383 million) damages it had been condemned to for patent infringements.

Mirror Worlds claimed Apple used three of its patented technologies in its Spotlight, Cover Flow and Time Machine products for archiving and displaying documents.

A jury found Apple guilty back in 2008 and ordered it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to the lesser-known firm.

However, a Texas District court has now overruled the verdict, which would have forced Apple to compensate $208.5 million for each of the three patent infringements.

Judge Leonard Davis said in the ruling: "Mirror Worlds may have painted an appealing picture for the jury, but it failed to lay a solid foundation sufficient to support important elements it was required to establish under the law.”

Apple regularly faces patent cases and is currently embroiled in fights with both Microsoft and Nokia.

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