Mirror Worlds v. Apple (2008, USA)

Mirror Worlds v. Apple was a USA court case where Apple was ordered to pay US$625.5 million for infringing three patents of Mirror Worlds LLC. The court case was filed in 2008 and the ruling was handed down in October 2010. Each of the three patents lead to an award of US$208.5m and covered software features of the computer programs Spotlight, Time Machine, and Cover Flow.

The venue was the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Apple announced it would appeal the rulings on two of the three patents.

Spotlight, Time Machine, and Cover Flow

Cover Flow is an interface which lets users choose music by flicking through a slide show of CD covers. Spotlight searches the computer's hard drive. Time Machine saves copies of files from time to time so that the user can go back to old versions of those files.

Apple's Cover Flow design patent

(Note: design patents are not the same as regular patents)

On the 5^th of October 2010, two days after being found to violate Mirror Worlds' Cover Flow patent, Apple was granted design patent on the Cover Flow interface. Apple already had other design patents on Cover Flow. Both companies thus have (sorts of) patent rights on Cover Flow, but since Mirror Worlds does not market products itself which are based on these patents, Apple's patent can't be used to counter-sue Mirror Worlds.

External links

• Cover Flow may cost Apple $208.5 million in damages, 4 Oct 2010, Ars Technica
• Apple hit with Time Machine patent infringement lawsuit, 20 Mar 2008, Ars Technica
• Apple, Michaels, Kiewit, Ohio State, K&L Gates: Intellectual Property, 5 Oct 2010, Bloomberg
• Apple Faces $625.5 Million Patent-Infringement Judgment, 4 Oct 2010, eWeek