Apple is set to challenge a hefty $625.5 million (€451 million) jury verdict for using a startup’s technology to display album covers and other digital files.
A US District Court jury awarded the damages after the court found that Apple had infringed three patents of Mirror Worlds that it used to find and display documents on Apple computers, iPods and iPhones, the Mercury News reported.
Apple has asked the judge for an emergency stay of the verdict last Friday, calling on the judge to strike out the rulings on two of the patents. Some claims made in the case, which was filed in 2008, were thrown out before it went to trial.
Mirror Worlds was founded by Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter.
The trial focused on Apple’s Cover Flow software, which shows album cover art in iTunes, the Spotlight hard drive search feature and Time Machine software, which saves copies of files, Mercury said.
Apple argues the Mirror Worlds patents had been sold, first for $210,000 and then $5 million, and weren't worth any more than that.
The court is waiting further submissions from Apple and Mirror Worlds.
The $625.5 million award is the second-biggest jury verdict in 2010, and the fourth-biggest patent verdict in US history.