April 24, 2009 - Opti Inc., a technology company based in Palo Alto, filed a lawsuit against Apple in January 2007, alleging that Apple infringed Opti's patent for “Predictive snooping” – a method to more efficiently transfer data among the CPU, memory, and “other devices.” Apple admitted using similar technology, but claimed that the patent was invalid due to prior art and obviousness.
The case was tried in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, where a jury found that Apple was guilty of willful infringement. Apple has now been ordered to pay $19 million in damages to Opti.