Apple bushwhacked in Texas!
AP notes that a federal jury in Tyler, Texas (ED Texas) has ordered Apple to pay $625.5 million to Mirror Worlds, a company founded by David Gelernter of Yale University concerning patent infringement related to Apple's Cover Flow, Spotlight and Time Machine features.
According to Bloomberg, the $625.5 million award is the second-biggest jury verdict in 2010, and the fourth-biggest patent verdict in U.S. history.
Apple has filed an emergency motion. From itbusinessedge:
Apple's motion explains:
During closing, Mirror Worlds' counsel showed the jury a 'sample' verdict form with damages amounts on a per patent basis of $322 [million], $336 [million], and $320 million – a sum of nearly $1 billion ... This ... gave the jury the impression that those amounts would be cumulative.
Apple wants a one-day trial to decide the issue or the right to submit additional briefs to U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis.
**Wikipedia notes of Gelernter:
In 1993, Gelernter was critically injured opening a mailbomb sent by Theodore Kaczynski, who at that time was an unidentified but violent opponent of technology, dubbed by the press as "the Unabomber".[2] He recovered from his injuries but his right hand and eye were permanently damaged. He chronicled the ordeal in his 1997 book Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber.
He helped found the company Mirror Worlds Technologies, which created software using ideas from his book, Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox...How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean (1992). Gelernter believed that computers can free users from being filing clerks by organizing their data. The company saw few sales, and disbanded in late 2003.
Gelernter's BA and MA degrees are in classical Hebrew literature from Yale University.
**First claim of US 6,006,227 :
A computer system which organizes each data unit received by or generated by the computer system, comprising:
means for generating a main stream of data units and at least one substream, the main stream for receiving each data unit received by or generated by the computer system, and each substream for containing data units only from the main stream;
means for receiving data units from other computer systems;
means for generating data units by the computer system;
means for selecting a timestamp to identify each data unit;
means for associating each data unit with at least one chronological indicator having the respective timestamp;
means for including each data unit according to the timestamp in the respective chronological indicator in the main stream; and
means for maintaining the main stream and the substreams as persistent streams.
**First claim of US 6,638,313 :
A method of utilizing a document stream operating system that in turn utilizes subsystems from at least one other operating system, comprising: receiving documents from diverse applications in formats that are specific to the respective applications and differ as between at least some of said applications; automatically associating time-based indicators with the documents received in the receiving step from the diverse applications; automatically archiving the received documents; automatically creating glance views that are abbreviated versions of respective ones of said documents; selectively displaying at least some of said documents as a receding, foreshortened stack of partly overlapping documents so that only a part of each of said documents in the displayed stack, after the first document in the stack, is visible to the user; said displaying further including displaying a cursor or pointer and responding to a user sliding the cursor or pointer over said displayed stack to display the glance view of the document in the stack that is currently touched by the cursor or pointer, without requiring clicking on the document; and utilizing, in said document stream operating system, subsystems from said at least one other operating system for operations including writing documents to storage media, interrupt handling and input/output.
** First claim of US 6,725,427 :
A stream-based operating system utilizing subsystems from another operating system running a computer, comprising: a document organizing facility receiving documents created by diverse applications in diverse formats specific to the respective applications; said document organizing facility automatically associating respective selected indicators with the received documents, automatically archiving the documents and indicators in consistent format for selective retrieval, and automatically creating information specifying respective glance views of said documents and respective document representations of said documents; a display facility displaying at least selected document representations as a receding, foreshortened stack of partly overlapping document representations such that only a part of each displayed document representation, after the first in the stack, is visible to the user; said display facility further displaying a cursor or pointer and responding to user-controlled sliding without clicking of the cursor over said displayed stack to display a glance view of a document whose document representation is currently touched by the cursor or pointer; and said stream-based operating system utilizing subsystems from said another operating system for operations including writing documents to storage media, interrupt handling and input/output.
***See also Why Apple's Patent Infringement Payout Is Still In Play
According to Bloomberg, the $625.5 million award is the second-biggest jury verdict in 2010, and the fourth-biggest patent verdict in U.S. history.
Apple has filed an emergency motion. From itbusinessedge:
Apple's motion explains:
During closing, Mirror Worlds' counsel showed the jury a 'sample' verdict form with damages amounts on a per patent basis of $322 [million], $336 [million], and $320 million – a sum of nearly $1 billion ... This ... gave the jury the impression that those amounts would be cumulative.
Apple wants a one-day trial to decide the issue or the right to submit additional briefs to U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis.
**Wikipedia notes of Gelernter:
In 1993, Gelernter was critically injured opening a mailbomb sent by Theodore Kaczynski, who at that time was an unidentified but violent opponent of technology, dubbed by the press as "the Unabomber".[2] He recovered from his injuries but his right hand and eye were permanently damaged. He chronicled the ordeal in his 1997 book Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber.
He helped found the company Mirror Worlds Technologies, which created software using ideas from his book, Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox...How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean (1992). Gelernter believed that computers can free users from being filing clerks by organizing their data. The company saw few sales, and disbanded in late 2003.
Gelernter's BA and MA degrees are in classical Hebrew literature from Yale University.
**First claim of US 6,006,227 :
A computer system which organizes each data unit received by or generated by the computer system, comprising:
means for generating a main stream of data units and at least one substream, the main stream for receiving each data unit received by or generated by the computer system, and each substream for containing data units only from the main stream;
means for receiving data units from other computer systems;
means for generating data units by the computer system;
means for selecting a timestamp to identify each data unit;
means for associating each data unit with at least one chronological indicator having the respective timestamp;
means for including each data unit according to the timestamp in the respective chronological indicator in the main stream; and
means for maintaining the main stream and the substreams as persistent streams.
**First claim of US 6,638,313 :
A method of utilizing a document stream operating system that in turn utilizes subsystems from at least one other operating system, comprising: receiving documents from diverse applications in formats that are specific to the respective applications and differ as between at least some of said applications; automatically associating time-based indicators with the documents received in the receiving step from the diverse applications; automatically archiving the received documents; automatically creating glance views that are abbreviated versions of respective ones of said documents; selectively displaying at least some of said documents as a receding, foreshortened stack of partly overlapping documents so that only a part of each of said documents in the displayed stack, after the first document in the stack, is visible to the user; said displaying further including displaying a cursor or pointer and responding to a user sliding the cursor or pointer over said displayed stack to display the glance view of the document in the stack that is currently touched by the cursor or pointer, without requiring clicking on the document; and utilizing, in said document stream operating system, subsystems from said at least one other operating system for operations including writing documents to storage media, interrupt handling and input/output.
** First claim of US 6,725,427 :
A stream-based operating system utilizing subsystems from another operating system running a computer, comprising: a document organizing facility receiving documents created by diverse applications in diverse formats specific to the respective applications; said document organizing facility automatically associating respective selected indicators with the received documents, automatically archiving the documents and indicators in consistent format for selective retrieval, and automatically creating information specifying respective glance views of said documents and respective document representations of said documents; a display facility displaying at least selected document representations as a receding, foreshortened stack of partly overlapping document representations such that only a part of each displayed document representation, after the first in the stack, is visible to the user; said display facility further displaying a cursor or pointer and responding to user-controlled sliding without clicking of the cursor over said displayed stack to display a glance view of a document whose document representation is currently touched by the cursor or pointer; and said stream-based operating system utilizing subsystems from said another operating system for operations including writing documents to storage media, interrupt handling and input/output.
***See also Why Apple's Patent Infringement Payout Is Still In Play
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 8:50 AM
1 Comments:
Though I don't condone patent infringement, this is a pretty large award. Though Apple can likely bankroll it, nonetheless this underscores the unfortunate (though perhaps unavoidable) lack of any baseline or bright line in determining damage awards for patent infringement. It's one of the many significant issues that Congress, if it were truly functional, would immediately address in patent reform legislation. Until that happens, however, IP owners have the right to enforce their assets to the greatest extent, and courts have discretion to award damages as they see fit. More on the topic at this page.
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