Apple Inc has been ordered to pay $532.9m after a federal jury found its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by Texas-based patent licensing company Smartflash LLC, Reuters said. Though Smartflash had been asking for $852m in damages, the verdict, which came late Tuesday night, was still a costly blow for the US tech giant, the most valuable company in the world. After deliberating for eight hours in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the jury said that Apple not only used the Smartflash patents without permission, but did so willfully.
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