An Eastern Texas Federal Court has ruled that Apple’s Cover Flow UI infringes on patents owned by Mirror Worlds, and has ordered Apple Inc. to pay $208.5 million in damages, according to Bloomberg.
Mirror Worlds filed its case on March 14, 2008 (a PDF of the court document can he found here) alleging that the Cover Flow UI styles showing files or albums flipping back and forth violates its own patents. Apple’s Hypercard used many of the concepts before the patents were filed, but a jury ruled in favor of Mirror Worlds.
Details about the verdict weren’t clear how Apple would be paying the $208.5 million and Apple hasn’t publically commented on the ruling either.
[via Mac Observer)