(Reuters) – A federal jury in Texas said Apple Inc is expected to pay about $ 308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) for infringing a patent associated with digital rights management.
Judges on Friday night instructed Apple to pay current royalties to PMC, which is generally based on the sales value of a product or service.
PMC, a licensing company, had originally sued Apple in 2015, claiming that the tech giant’s iTunes service infringed seven of its patents.
Apple successfully challenged the PMC case at the United States patent office, but an appeals court in March last year reversed the decision, paving the way for the trial.
The iPhone maker did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, but told Bloomberg that it was disappointed with the decision and would appeal.
“Cases like this, brought in by companies that don’t manufacture or sell any products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” Apple told Bloomberg.
Sugarland, Texas-based PMC has pending infringement lawsuits against companies like Netflix Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.
The case is Personalized Media v. Apple Inc.
Reporting by Derek Francis and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill