Apple hit by $21.7 million patent infringement charge on “pre-snoop” technology

Apple has received a bit of a setback in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where it has been found guilty of infringing a patent held by OPTi Inc.

The court yesterday issued the final judgment in the patent infringement action between OPTi Inc and Apple Inc. This suit centred around a patent on “pre-snoop” technology. This apparently is relates to U.S. patent No. 6,405,291, entitled “Predictive Snooping of Cache Memory for Master-Initiated Accesses”.

Apple apparently infringed claims 73, 74 and 88 of U.S. Patent No. 6.405,291 (the “291 patent”); OPTi has been given approval to recover from Apple a reasonable royalty of $19 million in actual damages. The court awarded an additional $2.7 million in pre-judgment interest for a total reward of $21.7 million.

Some good news. The court also found that there was no willful infringement in the case and denies any request for the reimbursement of attorney fees.

The case dates from January 16, 2007, when OPTi Inc. announced that it filed a complaint against Apple for infringement of its U.S. patents covering its “pre-snoop” technology.

“The Apple action itself is a part of the Company’s strategy for pursuing its patent infringement claims relating to its Predictive Snooping technology. Consequently, the final outcome of the Apple case itself will play a role in the Company’s strategy for pursuing its patent infringement claims and the Company’s ability to realize licensing revenue from its Predictive Snoop patents will be significantly affected if the final outcome of the litigation is not successful. There can be no assurance of the extent to which the outcome of these rulings will lead to positive results in the Apple case or the Company’s overall licensing strategy,” OPYi Inc. also revealed.