Apple must pay $308 million in damages for DRM patent infringement

A federal jury in a Texas court has ordered Apple to pay Personalized Media Communications $308.5 million in damages for infringing a digital rights management patent .

Apple has said in a response that it is disappointed with the outcome and says it will appeal. In a response to Bloomberg, the company expressed its frustration that it would be a patent troll: “These kinds of cases, brought by companies that do not sell or make products, cripple innovation and will ultimately harm consumers as well,” Apple said. .

This concerns a patent that Apple is infringing with, among other things, FairPlay, which is used, for example, for the distribution of encrypted content via the Apple Store, but also iTunes and Apple Music apps. FairPlay is a DRM technology developed by Apple, which is built into AAC audio files, among other things.

Personalized Media Communications started this business in 2015. Apple then successfully challenged it in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but that was later overturned by a higher general court. As a result, the case was still possible. A Texas court judge also recently dismissed Apple’s claim to invalidate the patent.

There are other pending cases brought by Personalized Media Communications. For example, there are still cases against Netflix and Amazon and in November last year Google won another case against the company, which involved patents on video streaming.