Appeals court says Apple didn't violate Mirror Worlds IP
updated 04:14 pm EDT, Tue September 4, 2012
Completely overturns 2010 court verdict
Apple has won an appeal in a patent infringement lawsuit over the company's Cover Flow, Spotlight, and Time Machine interfaces, Bloomberg reports. The case was first filed in 2008 by company called Mirror Worlds. Although the firm briefly claimed victory in 2010, in 2011, a judge overturned a jury verdict awarding Mirror Worlds $625.5 million in damages. With the latest ruling, a judge for the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington has stated that Apple didn't violate the three Mirror Worlds patents which were the basis for court proceedings.
Cover Flow was not originally an Apple creation; the company instead bought it from a Mac developer, Jonathan del Strother, in 2006. Later that year it made its first appearance in the desktop version of iTunes. Since then the Rolodex-style concept of Cover Flow has migrated to iOS devices, and other aspects of OS X, including Time Machine.
