Arstechnica reports that Apple has been ordered to pay $19 million to Opti Inc. for patent infringement on a technology called "predictive snooping":
The patent -- its full name is "Predictive snooping of cache memory for master-initiated accesses" -- describes a method to more efficiently transfer data among the CPU, memory, and "other devices." The patent was issued to Opti in June of 2002, and the company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in January of 2007.
Apple, of course, has been the target of many patent infringement lawsuits. Many lawsuits, however, never come to fruition. The most recent high profile lawsuit comes from Elan who who claims Apple has infringed on their multi-touch technologies. It may be years before we hear the conclusion of that claim.
We tend to avoid reporting on all lawsuit claims, instead holding out for the ones that actually seem to stick.
