14 DAY TRIAL // US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap has overturned his jury's decision and has got Apple off the hook from paying $533 million / €482 million to Smartflash LLC.
The lawsuit in cause was filed in 2013, Smartflash suing Apple for three infringements of its patents, in Tyler, Texas, a state very friendly to smaller companies on patent-related issues.
These patents detail techniques for storing, accessing, downloading, and paying for multimedia data, and according to Smartflash, they were used by Apple in its iTunes software.
The patents, in this case, are US7,334,720; US8,118,221; and US8,336,772.
After two years of litigation, the jury sided with Smartflash and ruled the company should receive $533 million / €482 million from its initial sought-after damages of $852 million / €770 million.
In a turn of events, the case's judge has overturned the jury's ruling by issuing a decision in which he orders a re-trial, admitting that he confused the jury with his instructions on how to calculate the royalties and the subsequent damages.
Smartflash has a history of suing big tech companies
None of the companies involved has wished to issue any statements, but Apple previously stated back in February, when the initial ruling was issued, "We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating."
Apple, along with Google and Microsoft, is currently lobbying US officials to reform the patent litigation system, having been many times in the past harassed by smaller companies that buy and then exploit smaller, more generic US or international patents.
Many industry experts are giving Smartflash as the embodiment of patent trolls, the company having similar lawsuits for other patents against companies like Amazon, Google, and Samsung, all in the same town of Tyler, Texas.
According to Reuters, the new trial will start September 14, in the same town of Tyler, Texas.