Apple wins anti-piracy patent infringement cases against ContentGuard

A US jury yesterday cleared Apple Inc in five anti-piracy patent infringement cases brought by ContentGuard Holdings, a Pendrell Corp subsidiary, in a Texas federal court.

ContentGuard, was formed in 2000 as a partnership between Xerox and Microsoft to establish a digital rights management business.

It is currently owned by the Pendrell Corp, a publicly traded patent management company, and Time Warner.

The jury further found that the iPhone maker did not prove that the patents were invalid.

ContentGuard Holdings was not awarded any damages.

Samuel Baxter, an attorney for ContentGuard, said they were disappointed by the outcome and evaluating options.

Earlier a jury in a separate case in the same court in September cleared Google of infringing the same five patents. That case also saw Samsung Electronics Co Ltd being cleared of the charges.

ContentGuard took Apple to court in 2013 and Google and Samsung in 2014 over alleged infringement of several anti-piracy patents that helped to restrict content to authorised users.

It alleged Apple infringed by making and selling its popular devices, which used the iTunes and iBooks applications, to distribute DRM-protected songs, movies, TV shows and books.

Denying any infringement Apple contended the patents were invalid.

Apple stood accused of illegally applying patented DRM technologies to its digital content distribution services, including music, movies and TV shows sold through iTunes and e-books marketed in iBooks.

DRM or Digital Rights Management aims to prevent unauthorised redistribution of digital media and restrict the ways consumers can copy their purchased content.

DRM follows a systematic approach to copyright protection of digital media.