Another day, another lawsuit (ruling). A federal jury in Texas has ruled that Apple must play US$308.5 million in royalties to Personalized Media Communications after a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, ruled that the tech giant violated a patent related to digital rights management, reports Bloomberg.
Personalized Media sued Apple in 2015 claiming it infringed its patents with tech including FairPlay. FairPlay is digital rights management tech and was used by the tech giant until 2009 to protect copyrighted works sold through the iTunes Store, allowing only authorized devices to play the content. In January 2009, Apple signed deals with all major record labels as well as many independent labels to offer all iTunes music with a DRM-free option.
Personalized Media owns a fundamental patent portfolio relating to the control of networked equipment, including online and mobile environments.