Cover Flow Patent Verdict Costs Apple $208.5 Million

Oh this is so going to be appealed. The paperwork is likely already being processed.

Some Lawyers in Texas need to be given the death penalty.

The patent battles will never end.  Are the courts and juries really equipped for this debates over intellectual property, user interfaces, etc.?  Is it valid to patent something that someone else is already using but perhaps hasn’t patented?

Are the courts and juries really equipped for this debates over intellectual property, user interfaces, etc.??

No. This has been proven over and over as juries rule out of sympathy rather that the facts and plaintiffs hunt for courts, like East Texas, where they can win more often and bigger. The first case like this I was aware of was in the late ‘70s. A guy sued Kawasaki. He had bought a motorcycle, never maintained it. Never read the manual. Never did anything except put gas in it and ride. Eventually the chain jumped the sprocket and he crashed. His negligence was obvious but they jury game him a large cash award anyway. I never found out what happened on appeal.

Is it valid to patent something that someone else is already using but perhaps hasn?t patented?

You can try but assuming it is well known, the ‘prior art’ rules should prevent the patent from being issued. It wouldn’t necessarily apply if you were the only one using it.

$208.5 million just does not sound like very much for violating patents on cover flow…..

As expected Apple is fighting it.

What was Bryan Chafin referrring to when he said,

“Despite the fact that many of the concepts were in use in Apple?s Hypercard product years before the patents were filed, a jury ruled in favor of Mirror Worlds.”

What was Hypercard’s version of this CoverFlow-ish technology, and why was it not pertinent as discrediting prior art against Mirror Worlds’ claims in the Texas (kangaroo) court?