Monday, October 04, 2010, 02:00 pm

Apple appeals $625.5 million ruling in Cover Flow patent dispute

By Slash Lane

Apple has officially appealed a patent violation ruling issued last week, challenging a jury's decision to award $625.5 million to a company for infringement related to Spotlight, Cover Flow and Time Machine.

Last week it was revealed that Mirror Worlds LLC won a lawsuit filed in 2008 that accused Apple of infringing on three patents it owns. The patent holder was awarded $625.5 million by a jury in a Tyler County Court in Eastern Texas.

But according to Bloomberg, Apple has asked the court for an emergency stay from the ruling, arguing that Mirror Worlds would be "triple dipping" in collecting $208.5 million on each of the patents. Apple is attempting to convince the court that there are outstanding issues with two of the patents.

Presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis has asked the lawyers on each side to submit legal arguments on the damages awarded by the Tyler County jury. Apple called an assertion by Mirror Worlds that the damages should be cumulative "erroneous and objectionable."

Apple has also requested that the court find Apple is not infringing on two of the patents. Judge Davis reportedly said if he granted Apple's request, he would strike the amount of damages attributed to those two patents.

The lawsuit accused Apple of infringing on patents for creating "streams" of documents sorted by time. The patents were originally filed for by Yale professor David Gelernter in 1999, who said he believes Apple's Spotlight, Time Machine and Cover Flow features were taken from his ideas on "lifesreaming."