Apple has been lost and found guilty on a patent infringement against a case filed by Palo Alto, CA based OPTi Inc in Texas.

The patent called predictive snooping of cache memory for master-initiated accesses is method of transferring data efficiently to CPU, memory, and other devices and is issued in June 2002.

The jury sided with OPTi and ordered Apple to pay $19,009,728 as a reasonable royalty for infringement. Apple for its part had tried to thwart the plaintiff by claiming that the patent was invalid both through prior art and through the obviousness of the techniques involved but Judge Charles Everingham of the Marshall court rejected the both arguments.

Apple has not commented on the verdict and is unlikely to do so.

Electronics Intellectual property law Apple inc. Patent