Apple Ordered to Pay Finalized $21.7 Million Patent Verdict, Hit With New Suit Over iPhone Camera

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Apple has been told to pay a $21.7 million patent infringement judgment to OPTi Inc., a former semiconductor company that abandoned its business to focus on pursuing patent claims against other companies.

The patent in question involves "predictive snooping" technology for transferring data and the suit was initially found in OPTi's favor by a jury back in April with Apple ordered to pay $19 million to OPTi. For unknown reasons, the judgment is only now being finalized, with Apple being ordered to pay an additional $2.7 million in pre-judgment interest.

The decision was made in the plaintiff-friendly U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Because Apple did not willfully infringe on the patent, it does not have to reimburse any attorney fees.

Obviously $21.7 million is couch change to Apple, and they have every incentive to keep fighting a patent troll. So it's possible it will appeal.

As Digital Daily notes, OPTi previously won a $10 million verdict and ongoing licensing fees from NVIDIA, and has also sued AMD over the same patent.

In other patent lawsuit news, The Loop reports that Apple has been sued by St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants over several patents it claims are being violated by Apple's iPhone camera.

Filed in the United States District Court in Delaware, the lawsuit claims that Apple's iPhone camera infringes on four separate patents including the '459, '219, '010 and '899 patents the company holds.

Apple is again not alone in being a target for St. Clair, as the group previously won significant judgments against Sony and Canon and has brought suits against a wide variety of major camera and technology companies.