Apple Told to Pay $23.6 Million Over Pager Technology
A Texas federal court jury found that Apple Inc. used SkyTel pager technology from the 1990s in iPhone, iPad and iPod without permission. The jury set damages to be paid to the Texas-based SkyTel at 23.6 million, according to a report in Bloomberg News.
Jurors in the Marshall, Texas, court found Nov. 17 that patents developed for the SkyTel network and owned by Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC are valid and were infringed by Apple. MTel, which got about a tenth of what it had been seeking in damages, claimed Apple’s Airport Wi-Fi products and iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices with messaging used the technology, Bloomberg reports.
This is the second trial in as many months in which Cupertino, California-based Apple was accused of using pager technology without paying for it. It won the first case, involving a different company, last month in California.