Apple charged $19m for patent infringement

A jury has backed OPTi Inc in a patent infringement case against Apple

Apple has been found guilty of patent infringement and charged $19m by a court in Texas.

The patent was held by California-based chip manufacturer OPTi Inc and related to a data transfer method, officially called 'Predictive snooping of cache memory for master-initiated accesses.'

Apple argued throughout the case, which was instigated in June 2007, that the patent was invalid because of "prior art" and "obviousness".

Apple could not immediately be reached for comment on the jury verdict.

Meanwhile, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs's testimony, during which he maintained that he was unaware of the accounting illegality of improperly backdating stock options, has been made public.

The US government did not take action against Jobs for the fraudulent accounting processes after he asked the Apple board in 2001 to approve an option grant of nearly five million shares to several members of the Apple executive team.

In the deposition filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 18 March, Jobs claimed that he asked the board for the grants because Apple needed to retain key personnel. "That's the key asset Apple has," he said. The deposition was made public by Forbes using the Freedom of Information Act.

Finally, in the same week that Apple announced strong quarterly revenues, an SEC filing has emerged showing that the firm has been slimming down its retail division.

Apple has cut 1,600 "full-time equivalent" retail workers since the end of 2008, according to the filing. This is because Apple's retail division is under-performing other areas of the company, said reports.

Apple finished its second quarter ending 28 March with revenue of $8.16bn and a profit of $1.21bn.

"Apple's financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29bn in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet," said Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer.