A federal jury in Delaware handed down a $3 million verdict against Apple Inc. on Wednesday, finding the technology giant infringed on a ring-silencing patent with technology it incorporated into earlier versions of the iPhone.
After a six-day trial, the eight-member jury agreed with MobileMedia Ideas, a nonpracticing entity based in Maryland, that the 3G, 3GS and 4 iterations of the iPhone had infringed two claims of the patent, which allows users to quiet or silence rings from incoming calls without the caller knowing. The $3 million award, however, fell far below the nearly $18 million MobileMedia had sought for the infringement.
