Apple has been told to pay more than $533 million in fines over a dispute involving patents.
Fortunately it has a little bit of cash tidied away for a rainy day which should help cover the bill.
Apple was ordered to pay the amount to Smartflash, a patent licensing company based in Texas, over three patents supposedly covering technology used in iTunes.
Apple had claimed that the patents were only worth $4.5 million, while Smartflash claimed damages of more than $800 million. The jury eventually came down in the middle, despite Apple’s argument that Smartflash was seeking payment for “technology Apple invented”.
"Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no US presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented," Apple’s Kristin Huguet told Bloomberg Business.
"We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system."