Dive Brief:

• An eight-member federal civil court jury took just three hours Tuesday to hand victory to Apple in a decade-old antitrust lawsuit that alleged the tech giant used iTunes software updates to shut out competitors. 

• The jury’s decision was unanimous in its determination that Apple’s iTunes updates were designed to improve the software.

• The lawsuit applied to iPods sold between September 2006 and March 2009 that, among other software quirks, played only songs downloaded from iTunes or CDs but not those from competing stores.

Dive Insight:

This lawsuit over the years was a bit fraught at times; at more than one point the plaintiff was required to find other plaintiffs because those testifying didn’t own iPods affected by the software changes and so couldn’t testify to damages. It simply didn’t look good that of all the millions of iPod owners, lawyers could only find a few who didn’t even own the iPods in question.

The plaintiffs had been seeking $350 million, which could have topped the $1 billion had Apple lost on antitrust grounds. This legal win comes a day after Apple apparently did well in another antitrust suit over its e-book selling business.