US judge tosses $625-M award against Apple

WASHINGTON—A US District Court judge in Texas has tossed out a $625.5 million damages award against Apple in a patent infringement case involving a document management and display system.

Judge Leonard Davis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler, Texas, vacated the jury’s finding against Apple in the case filed by a company called Mirror Worlds in March 2008.

Mirror Worlds had accused Apple Macintosh computers powered by the Mac OS X operating system of infringing on patents held by the company founded by a Yale University professor.

In October, a jury found that Apple had infringed three patents and awarded $208.5 million in damages for each patent.

Judge Davis, however, in a 44-page ruling on Monday, vacated the damages award, which would have been one of the largest ever in the United States.

“Separate and apart from the sufficiency of evidence regarding infringement, there is insufficient evidence to support the jury’s $208.5 million damages award,” the judge said.

“No matter how attractive a party paints the facade of its case, it is worthless without the requisite foundational support,” the judge said.

“In this case, 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,” he said.