Mirror Worlds

Mirror Worlds Technologies, Inc. was a company based in New Haven, Connecticut, which created software using ideas from the book Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox...How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean (1992) by Yale professor David Gelernter, who helped found the company with Eric Freeman and served as chief scientist. Gelernter believed that computers can free users from being filing clerks by organizing their data. The company's main product, Scopeware, was released in March 2001 and attempted to organize a user's files into time-based "streams" and make such data more easily accessible across networks and a variety of devices.^[1] The company saw few sales, and announced it would "cease operations effective May 15, 2004".^[2]

On March 14, 2008, Mirror Worlds, LLC of Tyler, Texas (a subsidiary of Plainfield Specialty Holdings I, Inc.) filed suit against Apple, Inc. for patent infringement in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler, Texas.^[3] The infringement ^[4] is alleged to occur in the Cover Flow, Time Machine, and Spotlight features found in Mac OS X and iOS software used for many of Apple's products.^[5]

On October 4, 2010 a jury awarded Mirror Worlds, LLC $625.5 Million in damages^[6] but Apple has appealed the award citing various legal arguments and the judge stayed the ruling until the end of November to allow both parties to submit post-trial arguments. If allowed to stand, it would be "the second-biggest jury verdict in 2010, and the fourth-biggest patent verdict in U.S. history" according to Bloomberg,^[7] who quoted Gelernter as saying he was “tremendously grateful” to his lawyers for “their overwhelmingly brilliant performance”.^[8] The jury was told by an Apple lawyer that the Mirror World patents had been sold twice (for $210,000 and later $5 million).

On April 4th, 2011, "U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis of Tyler ruled that Apple did not infringe on (the) patent", and overturned the jury verdict.^[9]

References

1. ^ "Mirror Worlds Technologies Links Scopeware With Lexmark's Multifunction Solutions to Solve Customer Information Management Challenges". Business Wire. July 3, 2001. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_July_3/ai_76161148/. Retrieved 8 October 2010. 
2. ^ "Mirror Worlds Technologies, Inc. has decided to cease operations". http://pbokelly.blogspot.com/2004/06/mirror-worlds-technologies-inc-has.html. "To our customers, partners and friends: Mirror Worlds Technologies, Inc. has decided to cease operations effective May 15, 2004. Our products, including Scopeware Vision and NewsWatcher, have been discontinued and are no longer available for download, purchase, or continuing support." 
3. ^ "Mirror Worlds, LLC v. Apple, Inc.". Justia.com. http://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txedce/6:2008cv00088/108627/. Retrieved 8 October 2010. 
4. ^ of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,006,227 and 6,638,313 B1 ("Document Stream Operating System"), 6,725,427 B2 ("Document Stream Operating System with Document Organizing and Display Facilities"), and 6,768,999 B2 ("Enterprise, Stream-Based Information Management System") Patently Apple
5. ^ Keizer, Gregg (13:10 GMT, 07 October 2010). "Apple wins reprieve from Mirror Worlds patent lawsuit". CIO. http://www.cio.co.uk/news/3242768/apple-wins-reprieve-from-mirror-worlds-patent-lawsuit/. Retrieved 9 October 2010. 
6. ^ "Apple Challenges Big Award Over Patents". New York Times. October 4, 1010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/technology/05apple.html?ref=technology. Retrieved 2010-10-05. "Apple is challenging a jury verdict that could force it to pay as much as $625.5 million to a company founded by David Gelernter, a Yale computer science professor, for infringing three patents related to how files are displayed on the iPod, the iPhone and Macintosh computers. ... Professor Gelernter, a renowned technology pioneer, sustained serious injuries to his right hand and eye from an explosive package sent to him in 1993 by Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber." 
7. ^ Decker and Satariano (Oct 4, 2010). "Apple Challenges $625.5 Million Mirror Worlds Verdict". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-04/apple-challenges-625-5-million-mirror-worlds-patent-verdict.html. Retrieved 9 October 2010. 
8. ^ Decker and Robertson (Oct 1, 2010). "Apple Loses Mirror Worlds Document Display Trial". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-01/apple-loses-mirror-worlds-trial-over-document-display-patents.html. Retrieved 9 October 2010. 
9. ^ http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/234559-east-texas-judge-tosses-625m-patent-verdict-against-apple

External links

• Mirror Worlds, LLC v. Apple, Inc.