Apple Patent Infringement: Apple Infringing This Time, Time to Pay Up

Apple Patent Infringement: Most of the time, when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is locked up in a court battle it is with another tech company, such as Samsung. Of course, this does not hold true 100 percent of the time. Have you seen Apple’s 15 most mind-blowing patents?

Despite the fact that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has some of the most experienced attorneys in the world on its side, this is not always good enough to come out on top.

If you are in the wrong you are in the wrong. And it appears that Apple has found itself in some trouble in China.

According to a report by China Daily, the Cupertino based company “was ordered to compensate three Chinese writers a total in excess of 730,000 yuan ($118,000) for infringing their copyright, Beijing No 2 Intermediate People’s Court ruled on Tuesday.”

For Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), a company that is sitting on a pile of cash, this may not sound like that big of a deal. But as you can imagine, this is something that the three writers are quite happy about. After all, it is not every day that writers are able to pull in a cash haul like this.

This is not the first time the company has locked horns with writers in China. According to the same piece, this is second lawsuit filed against the company by the Writers’ Right Protection Union.

The union was formed to safeguard Chinese writers from online copyright violations.

What was the problem?

In short, the writers claim that they did not grant Apple permission to use its books on the company’s popular App Store.

While Apple attorneys did not discuss the outcome, Wang Guohua, the writers’ lawyers, told the newspaper that he was “satisfied with the results.” Anytime you take on a company such as Apple and win, it has to be a good feeling. This is definitely a David vs. Goliath case.

The judge in the case believes that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) should take more responsible since “it has the duty of checking whether books uploaded by third parties are in line with current laws.”

Although it would be nice to say that situations like these will never arise again in the future, don’t count on it. Apple, along with its competitors, are not likely to change its approach anytime soon.

The writers in this case have a right to file a lawsuit against Apple, and it makes you wonder if any more will come to the forefront now that there is a mark in the tech company’s armor.

Check back here for more updates on Apple Patent Infringement.

DISCLOSURE: I have no positions in any stock mentioned.

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