Judge overturns jury’s $600m patent win against Apple

A US District Court has “vacated” a jury’s decision to award $660 million in damages to a man who claimed Apple has infringed three patents covering a document management display system.

Small technology company Mirror Worlds, founded by a Yale University professor named David Gelernter, claimed Apple had infringed his patents in a number of its products on Apple’s Mac computers, iPhones and iPods.

These included the prominent Cover Flow technology, which allows users to flip through album covers and other content as if through a stack of cards; Time Machine, which performs automatic backups; and Spotlight, which allows users to search computer hard drives.

A jury awarded Mirror Worlds more than $200 million for each of three patent infringements, but Apple asked Judge Leonard Davis to delay the payout, claiming there were matters still to be worked out between the parties and the damages had not been correctly calculated.

Davis agreed.

“Separate and apart from the sufficiency of evidence regarding infringement, there is insufficient evidence to support the jury’s $US208.5 million damages award,” the judge said.