Apple's iconic iPod Mini click wheel made them a ton of money back in the day, but now it just cost them $3.3 million.
A Tokyo district court has just awarded 330 million yen (about $3.3 million) to Norihiko Saito, a Japanese inventor, who took up a lawsuit that claimed Apple had infringed upon one of his patents with the click-wheel. Saito applied for the patent way back in 1998, and Apple used the click wheel for the first time on the iPod Mini in 2004. Saito went to court in 2007 to seek an injunction against Apple and their click wheel in 2007, and eventually tried to get 100 million yen in damages. After things proved difficult, Saito through out the cards and upped his request to 10 billion yen, for each click-based iPod sold. Luckily for Apple, Saito didn't get that much, and they'll probably make up the $3.3 million they do have to pay him with iPhone 5S's sold in 3... 2... 1... done.
[via Engadget]
