14 DAY TRIAL // OPTi Inc. announced today that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued the final judgment in the patent-infringement action between OPTi and Apple, ordering the Mac maker to pay a total of $21.7 million in damages and pre-judgment interest. Although Apple was found to be guilty of violating the patent claims, the court did not view the actions as willful infringement. It is a decision that can potentially save Apple from having to pay even higher damages, people familiar with the matter say.
According to an official press release issued by OPTi, the final judgment as issued on December 3, 2009 is the following: “The court having determined that Apple infringed claims 73, 74 and 88 of U.S. Patent No. 6.405,291 (the ‘291 patent’); the jury having failed to find any of the asserted claims are invalid; it is Ordered that OPTi recover from Apple a reasonable royalty of $19.0 million in actual damages. The court awarded an additional $2.7 million in pre-judgment interest for a total reward of $21.7 million.”
Additionally, according to court documents, the court reportedly also found that, “There was no willful infringement in the case and denies any request for the reimbursement of attorney fees.” The report then proceeds to inform readers of the basis of the legal fight between the two companies, revealing that OPTi filed a complaint against Apple on January 16, 2007, in the Eastern District of Texas.
The company, manufacturer of ICs , including controller chips for LCD panels, accused Apple of infringement of its U.S. patents covering its “pre-snoop” technology. Officially referred to as “Predictive Snooping of Cache Memory for Master-Initiated Accesses,” the patent was allegedly infringed “by making, selling, and offering for sale various products based on and incorporating Predictive Snooping technology.”
For a summary of the events unfolding since 2007, the jury ruled on the following four issues:
- In the matter of willful infringement, the jury ruled that Apple willfully infringed OPTi’s patent; - In the matter of Apple’s defense that OPTi’s patent was invalid due to obviousness, the jury ruled that OPTi’s patent was valid; - In the matter of Apple’s defense that the patent was invalid due to anticipation, the jury ruled that the OPTi’s patent was valid; - In the matter of damages, the jury awarded OPTi $19 million for Apple’s infringement of OPTi’s patent.