Dive Brief:

• A federal jury Tuesday ruled that Apple Inc. must pay patent holder Smartflash LLC $532.9 million in damages, saying that Apple used Smartflash patents willfully and without permission.

• Smartflash had sought $852 million in the case, where it alleged that aspects of Apple’s iTunes software that allows users to access and store songs, videos, and games ran afoul of its patents. Smartflash is also suing Samsung Electronics Co Ltd., HTC Corp., and Google Inc.

• Apple said it would appeal the decision. 

Dive Insight:

Apple may yet prevail on appeal in this suit, but the case is a problem for Apple and a sign that patent lawsuits in general aren’t going away. Patent holders like Smartflash, which buy up or register patents but don’t produce any products or services of their own, have found particular success in the federal court in Tyler, TX. The problem is acute in the realm of software and can be an issue for retailers' e-commerce functions, like shopping carts and loyalty programs. 

While courts have of late increasingly rejected patent lawsuits like these because the patents in question are ruled too broad, cases like the one decided Tuesday show how badly reform is needed. Congress so far as been unable to fashion a passable bill, not so much because reform along these lines is controversial but because attorneys and lawmakers are concerned about unintended consequences for legitimate patent holders.