Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Loses Patent Case In The China court in Piracy Suit

The Encyclopaedia of China Publishing House won a court case against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Thursday, with the court ruling that Apple was liable to pay damages more than $82,000 for piracy.

The piracy referred to the iPhone maker selling unauthorised digital copies of the encyclopaedia from tis App Store.

The publishing house had initially asked for $84,200 as damages. However Beijing's Second Intermediate People’s Court, pronouncing its verdict, pared that amount down to $82,600, a report in the Beijing Times said.

The suit had been filed in 2010 and it had alleged that the company was selling pirated versions of its encyclopaedia, which were copyrighted.

Will AAPL Hit $1000 This Year? Don’t Miss Our Special Report here

Apple, in its defense, said that it had no involvement or responsibility for third party applications that were sold though its stores.

The court however held the view that since the stores belonged to Apple and were sold from that, its approval was taken for granted and it had also profited by the sale of the copies.

“The App Store offers customers in China access to an incredible selection of over 700,000 apps created by Apple’s developer community," an Apple representative told The Next Web. "As an IP holder ourselves, Apple understands the importance of protecting intellectual property and when we receive complaints, as we did in this case, we respond promptly and appropriately.”

There have been instances of other groups suing Apple for products sold through its App Store on claims of piracy.