(Reuters) – A Texas federal jury said Apple Inc. must pay about $ 308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) for infringing a patent associated with digital rights management.
Jurors did not ask Apple on Friday to pay a current fee to PMC, which is usually based on the amount of sales of a product or service.
PMC, a licensing company, had originally sued Apple in 2015 alleging that the tech giant’s iTunes service infringed seven of its patents.
Apple successfully challenged the PMC case in the U.S. patent office, but an appeals court in March last year reversed that decision and paved the way for the trial.
The iPhone maker did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, but told Bloomberg it was disappointed with the ruling and would appeal.
“Cases like this, produced by companies that don’t manufacture or sell any products, drown out innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” Apple told Bloomberg.
PMC, based in Sugarland, Texas, has pending infringement cases against companies such as Netflix Inc., Google Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
The case is Personalized Media v. Apple Inc.
Reports of Derek Francis and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Edited by Kim Coghill